Seventy-Fifth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
t
Each Time I Chanced To See Franklin D.
Issues From the Report on LSA Growth.
AM ME Mumam- - , -- .- 'Rolm
W e Oions Are Free 420 MAYNARD sT., ANN ARBOR, MICH.
NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
by It. Neil Blerkson
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
WEDNESDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT HIPPLER
An Accelerated Curriculum
Leaves Much Education Behind
N THIS AGE which places a premium on
education, it is not surprising that the
process has been under discussion. This
fact is not alarming; however, the con-
clusions which have been reached by
some educators are . ... for the student
who wishes to attain more than a diploma
from his college education.
Accelerated education has become a
password. Pre-schoolers no longer have
to waste five valuable years adjusting
to their role in society and suppressing
their oedipal complex; their parents may
obtain books for them, for reading is not
the exclusive achievement of the first
grader. In grade school itself, the new
math process brings algebra to the child
who ten years ago would have been
struggling through long division. The
high school student is encouraged to take
courses for college credit, and the college
student is encouraged to get his degree
in three years so that he may pursue
graduate studies.
ALTHOUGH THE PURSUIT of a better
educated population is hardly an evil,
the consequences of such intensive edu-
cation on the individual are far from
beneficial.
The college factory which mass pro-
duces degrees as if they were any other
high-demand commodity is not complete-
ly 'a fantasy. The emphasis on grad
school, coupled with the opportunity for
three-year college education presented by
trimester, can make this fairy tale come
true. There would be earlier specializa-
tion of students, and the truly liberal
Be Prepared
'THE COAST GUARD yesterday ordered
all San Francisco Bay and East Bay
piers closed to fishermen and strollers as
a 'tightening of security'," the Associated
Press reports.
"A spokesman said the order was not
intended as any drill testing security en-
forcement. 'This is no drill,' he said.
"He refused to comment further. He
would not comment on whether the order
resulted from stepped up U.S. military
operations in Viet Nam."
ONE CAN JUST picture a fleet of junks
sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Let's be. thankful we have leaders with
such foresight.
-J. BRYANT
H. NEIL BERKSON, Editor
KENNETH WINTER EDWARD HERSTEIN
Managing Editor Editorial Director
ANN GWIRTZMAN . ... .......... Personnel Director
,BILL BULLARD .............Sports Editor
MICHAEL SATTINGER Associate Managing Editor
JOHN KENNY .. Assistant Managing Editor
DEBORAH BEATTIE Associate Editorial Director
LOUISE LIND ........Assistant Editorial Director In,
Charge of the Magazine
TOM ROWLAND ............Associate Sports Editor
GARY WYNER .............. Associate Sports Editor
STEVEN HALLER ....,Contributing Editor
MARY LOU BUTCHER ... .. Contributing Editor
JAMES KESON .. .... Chief Photographer
NIGHT EDITORS: Lauren Bahr, David Block, John
Bryant, Robert Johnston, Michael Juliar, Laurence
Kirshbaum, Leonard Pratt.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: William Benoit, Bruce
Bigelow, Gail Blumberg, Michael Dean, John Mere-
dith, Barbara Seyfried, Judith Warren.
The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and
Collegiate Press Service.
Subscription rates: $4.50 semester by carrier ($5 by
mail); $8 yearly by carrier ($9 by mail).
Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor. Mich.
Published daily Tuesday through Sunday morning.
arts education would become an ana-
chronism.
Naturally, the number of college gradu-
ates would increase with the rate of pro-
duction. However, the problem then be-
comes one of maturity. Although chron-
ological age is not a certain indicator of
maturity, i.e., ability to assume the re-
sponsibilities of the adult world, formal
education is even less a single j1udge.
ALTHOUGH THE FOUR YEARS of care-
free self-indulgence went out with the
'20's, if they ever existed then, there is
still much to be said for this longer,
slower period of being so close to reality
and yet so removed from it. College pro-
vides an opportunity for the individual
to learn about himself. He grows and de-
velops in this poignant period of meta-
morphosis. If growth is geared to the
academic arena alone, college is no long-
er a proving ground for individuals; there
is no time for exploration, experimenta-
tion, or evaluation.
If education becomes an accelerated
product, extra-curricular activities will
become a luxury which the majority of
students could not afford. When there is
no time for the individual to grow out-
side the confines of his study cubicle,
the result is a demese of the student
who can be anything but a consumer of
purely academic products.
The ramifications on potential partici-
pators would be disastrous. Not only
would student organizations suffer, but
the fraternity system would become ob-
solete. The tragedy lies not with the
death of extra-curricular activities alone,
but with the subsequent loss of individ-
ual development.
THE EFFECT of increased academic
pressure is that of creating individual
isolation booths. With emphasis on study-
ing, the need for an adequate place for
academic isolation entices further apart-
ment living-a need which is not now
neglected by potential apartment dwell-
ers in newly released ranks of junior
women. Such isolation might limit noise,
but it also limits communication . . . and
that is the way cells form around people.
Even the student who does not choose
to graduate earlier is confronted with the
natural product of courses which cram
more material into less time. Increased
pressure is unavoidable. A Harvard stu-
dent succinctly posed this problem: "I
wouldn't mind all this pressure, if I were
learning something. But I'm not." In this
painful process memorization replaces
learning, and recitation replaces think-
ing.
It should not be forgotten that educa-
tion is more than an institutional process.
Academic institutions are created by and
for people, and the emphasis on human
interaction should not be negated or plac-
ed in the coincidental realm of chance.
THE DEVELOPMENT of the individual
is not to be gained through academic
isolation; personal growth is both an in-
tellectual and social process. Such growth
is achieved through the interaction of
individuals who have the time to ex-
change opinions, to engage in activities,
to experience and experiment. The goal of
college itself is not realized with only *,
diploma in hand. Learning involves more
than a sheepskin ... and maturity cannot
be artificially stimulated.
-KAY HOLMES
THE REPORT concerning the growth and direction of
the literary college is 47 pages long. It meanders on
occasion, looks at problems through foggy glasses in
spots and displays questionable mathematics in at
least one case. Nevertheless, the report, which should
take some time to digest, seems to define certain issues
on paper for the first time and should, as Daily Manag-
ing Editor Kenneth Winter declared yesterday, provoke
pointed discussion.
While the definitive analysis of this elphantine
document would require at least another 47 pages, one
item already rings out loud and clear:
In the future the college should make every
effort to see that the student body maintains its
cosmopolitan and highly qualified character. Ideally,
in time, the balance of the student body should be
shifted in favor of advanced-level and graduate
students.
Here is a call for no less than the phasing out of
freshman-sophomore students. It argues that instruction
at this level is "routinized and less effective" and that
other state schools-particularly junior colleges-can do
a better job in this area.
IT IS ABOUT TIME this proposal became public. The
administration has been presenting the con side for
at least two years, but no one has been willing to
advocate the pro..
The debate over whether large universities should
eliminate undergraduate education has, however, drawn
much national attention. This issue is usually raised
within the context of a thorough restructuring of Ameri-
can higher education. Two years ago Alvin C. Eurich,
vice-president of the Fund for the Advancement of
Education, approached the problem from an imaginary
vantage point in the 21st century. He had this to say:
During the first half of the 20th century, we
established universal elementary and secondary edu-
cation. During the second half we made higher
education universal through the junior college. In
the process we restructured our educational system.
Many of our former liberal arts colleges were unable,
for one reason or another, to solve their financial
problems. Since their facilities were still urgently
needed, local communities transformed them into
junior colleges.
During the quarter century following World War
II, teachers colleges disappeared completely from
the American scene. Their place has been taken by
multipurpose institutions which, together with the
strong liberal arts colleges and universities, have
discontinued the first two years since these now
come almost wholly within the province of the junior
colleges. The transition took place with surprising
smoothness. Once football, basketball and other
sports became completely professionalized and the
social fraternities and sororities vanished from the
scene, the need for the first two years of college
abruptly ceased.
INTRIGUING as a University without- jocks and
Greeks might be, the LSA report counters last Decem-
ber's Office of Academic Affairs growth projections for
the entire University. The OAA calls for a continued
60:40 undergraduate-graduate ratio and predicts that
the University will take even more freshmen than usual
to meet the high school pressures of coming years.
Further, President Hatcher emphasized in his last
State of the University address:
I have said before and I must now repeat that
I can see nothing in the experience of the United
States in higher education nor in the experience of
the leading nations of Europe to lead me to believe
that we would be better off without our traditional
intake of undergraduates in this University. I am
sure you know the reasons behind this statement as
well as I.
I don't know the reasons. Nor do I find the literary
college report satisfactory from the other end. Else-
where, for instance, the report calls for teaching in-
novations. The Center for Research on Learning and
Teaching is working in the area and claims that
possibly 70 per cent of lecture material can be com-
puterized. Would the freed time provide for greaten
faculty-student contact and & more meaningful fresh-
man-sophomore curriculum?
The literary college is a major service agency fcr
other schools and colleges. Can those units afford to
let LSA de-emphasize or eliminate the freshman-
sophomore years? The residential college has been set
forth as a means to meet both the growth problem and
the ensuing mediocrity of the first two years. If
successful, could this concept not be duplicated again
and again to accommodate all undergraduate education
here? What if the state begins supporting the University
at a level adequate enough to prevent some of the
painful choices of the last eight years?
These questions and many more have no answer,
yet. The report, however, seems to reach its conclusioui
about freshmen and sophomores from an attitude of
resignation: "it is hard for us to demonstrate that our
first two years of instruction are significantly better
than those at a number of our sister institutions in the
state." Perhaps so, and perhaps the situation is irrevers&
ible. But such evidence is not in yet.
CLEARLY, the University cannot maintain the status
quo. Undergraduate education is sorely deficient, and
the schools and college must opt to improve or eliminate
it within a relatively short period of time. It would be
sad, however, to see the resources of the University
closed off to freshmen and sophomores simply because
that was the least imaginative solution necessary.
I
'I
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
SObjectives of Service Academies: W r, Death
To the Editor:
SO THE OBJECTIVES of the
service academies are "to in-
still discipline . . . (and) honor. To
provide knowledge and general ed-
ucation . . . and to develop the
powers of analysis . . ." And all
this time I thought there was
something there about being
taught how to fire a gun, maybe
with the objective of killing, but
of course only if the necessity
arises.
In a letter to the editor (Feb.
6) quoted above, Captain Samuel
L. Myers, Jr., of the Army refers
to "numerous examples of hero-
ism, courage in the face of ad-
versity and compassion in the
moment of victory." He speaks of
continuing a war "rather than
compromise humanitarian princi-
ples," of "that higher morality,"
stimulated by "those who best un-
derstand the use and nature of
armed power." His words, and th'
words he quotes, obscure what to
me are the central issues: the fact
that war results in death, and the
basic overriding immorality of
killing.
WARS ARE always fought for
principles, or liberty, or in God's
name, or for some other nice-
sounding excuse. White Missis-
sippians kill for the same rea-
sons. War is basically about death.
No dressed-up excuse or apology
can alter that essential fact. The
people "who best understand the
use and nature of armed power"
are those who were killed by that
power.
Americans are used to calling
them our honored dead, whose
blood sanctified the ground, who
died so gloriously fighting (a) for
independence, (b) for freedom,
(c) to make the world safe for
democracy, (d) for some "higher
morality" (choose one). I wonder
how honored the dead would feel,
if they could feel?
Merely because the book Capt.
Myers quotes, The Armed Forces
Officer, acknowledges the appar-
ent hypocrisy of speaking in the
same breath of ethics and war,
does not make the rebuttal that
follows any more valid.
Might I suggest some outside
reading to Capt. Myers, and espe-
cially to any young men who are
eligible for the armed services?
Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His
Gun is available in a 50 cent pa-
perback at Marshall's Book Shop
It's well worth reading.
-Jeremy Lustig, Grad
To the Editor:
MAN has honor, if he holds
himself to a course of conduct
because of a conviction that' it is
in the general interest, even
though he is well aware that it
may lead to inconvenience, per-
sonal loss, humiliation or physi-
cal risk. This honor characterizes,
or should characterize, a mem-
ber of the armed forces of the U.S.
This concept of honor Lloyd
Graff chooses to decry in his edi-
torial in the Feb. 7 Daily. Graff
laments the fate of those men
who "were caught in the machin-
ery of honor," whose "obligation
to comrades overwhelmed the
academy's idolatry of honor," and
who were "ruined with the rest."
I question whether their fate is,
in fact, lamentable. The system
to Which Graff refers cannot func-
tion without honor, the honor
which stemsfrom the singularity
of purpose of all U.S. military per-
sonnel.
TO ME, it seems that those men
who were "caught" in the machin-
ery of honor" lacked this singu-
larity of purpose. They were sworn
not to cheat, nor to tolerate oth-
ers who did. And it might be rea-
soned that, if they were willing
to tolerate dishonor inthis in-
stance, they would likely continue
to sacrifice honor for expediency,
and thus negate their usefulness
to the service. Your marytyrs, Mr.
Graff, are just the chaff. The
wheat is still there.
-Gerald W. Braun, '65E
Civil Rights
To the Editor:
APPEALS for "individual rights"
have long been an effective
method of rallying support for
any point of tview, right or wrong.
Our inherent selfishness, together
with the frightening thought of
thg billions around us, make us
leap at the mention of our per-
sonal rights.
AH, SPRING!
Comes the first tentative softening of the fertile-earth surrounding the campus and Man and Machine
set about their task of preparing the ground for the spring planting. One such vehicle, having traversed
the length and breadth of a small grassy plot at the Law Club, turning over the rich loam obvious ef-
ficiency, rests modestly beside its efforts. Ah, the fruits of a higher education.
-James Keson
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The ego-shattering truth, how-
ever, is that we are committed to a
society, a democratic society -
a society which maintains as its
principal credo that almost any-
thing is legally permissible pro-
vided the rights of others are
not invaded. Thus society restricts
our freedoms; surely it is not with-
in our rights to serve tainted
food at a hamburger stand.
Michael Hyman has advocated
what seems to be a contrary po-
sition in his letter to The Daily
(Feb. 5); using heart-swelling
terms like "economic independ-
ence," "fundamental h u m a n
rights" and "defense of private
property," he attempts to arouse
my righteous indignation at the
alleged violation of the holiness
of my rights by the civil rights
bill.
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS simply
do not exist in our world - our
rights are individual only in their
relation to those of others, and
absolute freedom for all is a slav-
ery of selfishness, greed and ha-
tred. Economic independence, too,
is a figment of a simplified and
rather egocentric viewpoint - no
business could possibly compete
without the help of the govern-
ment and the people, white and
black, it represents. We do not
"own" our lives-we sell or lend
parts of ourselves to our fellows,
and he who tries to keep him-
self to himself lives a lonely and
bitter existence.
Finally, any set of laws which
allows the continuation of plac-
ing one man above another and
subjects a man to the incredible
humiliation which the Negro has
been forced to undergo for cen-
turies, is an unjust and despicable
To the Editor:
A LTHOUGH
with the
Les Mains Sales
THE NOTION of some academicians that only those who obtain
their salaries from political and economic organizations get les
mains sales is a preposterous one, in itself an ideology that serves
to legitimate the academician's own position. For one thing, the
economics of scientific research today is of such a nature that the
academic world itself is permeated with the pragmatic interests of
these extraneous organizations.
The rat race of the university is frequently even more savage
than the proverbial one on Madison Avenue, if only because its
viciousness is camouflaged by scholarly courtesies and dedication to
pedagogic idealism.
** *
WHEN ONE has tried for a decade to get out of a third-string
junior college to one of the prestige universities, or when one has
tried in one of the latter to make an associate professorship for the
same lnnth of time the humanistic imilse of snciology will have
To the Editor:
I FOUND Michael Hyman's let-
ter on the civil rights bill very
enlightening. It was surprising to
learn that a. bill which insures
the rights of an American citi-
zen to spend his money where
he pleases contradicts "the most
fundamental of all human rights
outside of the right to life itself."
I am indebted to Mr. Hyman for
informing me that an American
businessman's most fundamental.
right is that of refusing food or
lodging to a man because of his
race.
-Richard Reynolds, '65
Josh White
I certainly agree
overall evaluation
(Feb. 13) of Josh White's concert
as "very good," I find Mr. Zee's
:riticism of Josh for being to "styl-
istic" rather silly.
Perhaps Zee is one of those un
-fortunates afflicted with such a
keenly analytical mind that he is
unable to enjoy any esthetic ex=
perience on its face value alone.
Perhaps not. But who's he trying
to kid?
Even though Josh White didn't
slip a few, Kingston Trio-style
songs into the evening's program,
I somehow managed to enjoy (im-
mensely) a "few too many songs.
done in his somewhat unvaried
style and classic arrangements." I
guess I'm a dolt, or something, be-
cause I always thought that dis-
tinctiveness of style was some
thing to be praised in a perform-
ing artist.
-Tom Mann, '67L
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