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A
U'P r Athigau Badig
Sevenly-Fifth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNivERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
EDUCATIONAL ISSUES:
Community Colleges. Growing
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WHY NOTT
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A nh-Democracy
And the 26,150
By Jeffrey Goodman
: :
iere Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH.
Truth 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.
FRIDAY, 26 MARCH 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: WILLIAM BENOIT
The Viet N rotest:
Some Chose Not To Talk
0 0 0
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the
third in a series of articles on the
issues discussed in the report of
Gov. George Romney's "blue rib-
bon" Citizens' Committee on High-
er Education.
By LEONARD PRATT
T HE REPORT of Gov. George
Romney's "blue ribbon" Citi-
zens' Committee on Higher Edu-
cation emphasizes Michigan's need
for an expanded system of govern-
ment-suported two-year colleges
and puts an increased stress on
the need for technical courses in
the 18 colleges already in opera-
tion.
Stretching from Gogebic to
Wayne counties, Michigan's com-
munity college net is a diverse one.
State community funds come from
three sources-state allocations,
local taxation, and students' fees.
Many community colleges have
well-developed technical training
programs; others modify this and
are similar to models of larger
universities in their emphasis on
liberal arts.
The blue ribbon report charts
designs to modify and systematize
all this diversity. In planning to do
so, it plans moves that will sig-
nificantly effect both the system
and Michigan higher education.
PERHAPS the most significant
of the report's proposals, all
of which must be implemented by
the State Board of Education be-
fore they have binding effect, is
its emphasis on the vastly ex-
panded role community colleges
should play in technical educa-
tion.
"This Committee." the report
states, "believes that a statewide
system of community colleges-
offering the technical vocational
programs ... is an essential part
of the Michigan system of higher
education."
The emphasis might tend to op-
pose the thinking of many key
state figures connected with com-
munity colleges. Robert E. Turner,
president of Macomb County's col-
lege and member of the State
Board of Community College Ad-
ministrators, told the board of
education's March 4 Flint hearing
that the present emphasis within
community colleges on freshman-
sophomore preparatory programs
should not be de-emphasized.
In addition, Leon Fill, vice-
president of the board of educa-
tion, though supporting vocation-
al education, has said that com-
munity colleges must maintain a
strong liberal arts program.
IT'S INTERESTING to see who makes
all the noise at a protest.
Many who were at the Diag rally at
Wednesday's teach-in clearly remember
the large group of people carrying signs
protesting the protest. The chant "Bet-
ter dead than Red," was seen and heard
as the delegation of marchers bearing
an American flag and. numerous signs
put one in mind of a DAR rally.
The vocal minority of dissenters in the
teach-in made up for its lack of num-
bers with large football-type jeering sec-
tions. The speakers on the Diag were
hard pressed to get a word in over the
chants, drum beats and flying snowballs.
THAT THE SPECTACLE of the radical
right was discourteous and a display of
immaturity befitting a junior high school
basketball game is not in doubt. The
intriguing question is why these elements
refused to participate in the seminar,
discussions and present their views in
an orderly fashion. The object of the
teach-in was not to propagandize but to
create a learning situation for anyone
interested in the problem.
Prof. Kenneth Boulding addressed him-
self to the dissenters and admonished
them for "the sneer I see on the face of
America." One could look out over the
crowd and see that sneer. But it was not
a sneer of aggression or arrogance; it was
rather one of fear and defensiveness.
The discussions in the seminars were
often basically one-sided. But this was
not the wish of the faculty who orga-
nized the teach-in. Any relevant com-
ments, pro or con, or questions would
have been welcome. The con side of the
argument was present only in the halls
and on the Diag.
IT HAS BEEN SAID by many that those
who protest the war in Viet Nam or
civil rights injustices protest simply for
the sake of protesting. It has also been.
said by some that protestors are emo-
tional and interested only in propagan-
dizing their own one-sided viewpoint.
But who was uninterested in studying the
issues and searching for answers at the
teach-in?
The problem of Viet Nam is a difficult
one. But should one abandon rational dis-
cussion of'it and thus abdicate power to
the government decision-makers? Or is it
best to examine to the best of one's
ability the issues at stake and draw logi-
cal conclusions from the information at
hand?
THE ANTI-ANTIS chose the former
course Wednesday night.
-MICHAEL BADAMO
... It Was Too One-Sided
WEDNESDAY NIGHT'S *teach-in had,
all the pomp, variety, and excitement
Df a county fair. More than 3000 stu-
ients and faculty members spent much
of the night listening to speeches, par-
ticipating in seminars and milling
around in the first major. American or-
ganized protest against U.S. policy in Viet
Nam.
The affairs received widespread press
coverage and nationwide support, and its
overwhelming success cannot be denied.
However, the causes of its success, as
well as its educational worth, are ques-
tionable.
The teach-in was the largest political
dalmonstration ever conducted at the Uni-
versity. However, it is fallacious to as-
sume that the majority of those attend-
ing were drawn in support of the pro-
testing faculty group which sponsored
the event. Clearly, the excitement of an
all-night gathering, the opportunity for
women students to have an overnight
"per," the opportunity for men to mingle
and socialize with the swarm of females
and the pure curiosity aspects inherent
in the situation were the predominant
bases for the teach-in's unexpectedly
high turnout.
However, despite the fact that many
of those in attendance were deadweight,
the demonstration proved a successful
and valuable forum for the protestors'
position. The speakers clearly presented
the justification for seeking U.S. with-
drawal from South Viet Nam, and the
seminars, when not interrupted by noisy
traffic, provided an interesting inter-
change of opinions on the Southeast
Asian crisis.I
MOST OF THE SEMINARS were con-
ducted upon the hypothesis that the
protestors were correct-that the U.S.
should cease its military effort in Viet
Nam-and devoted themselves to discuss-
ing the consequences of such a move.
However, a few seminars avoided this as-
sumption and evolved into a modified
debate over the fundamental issue --
whether or not the J.S. should stay in
Viet Nam.
The teach-in, with the partial excep-
tions of those seminars in which both
sides of the issue were presented, was far
from an ideal educational experience. The
protesting faculty members should be
commended for their attempt to draw at-
tention to a questionable American policy
in Viet Nam. Unfortunately, they believed
that the rationale for this policy had
already received enough publicity so that
the teach-in did not have to present both
sides of the issue.
MANY OF THOSE attending the demon-
stration were as unfamiliar with the
government's "white paper" on Viet Nam
as they were with the reasons for seek-
ing alternatives in Southeast Asia. The
professors were concerned with having
their position clearly presented; however,
they should have realized that this could
be effectively and democratically done
only by enlisting both pro and con speak-
ers, thus providing an open forum for a
free and unprejudiced discussion of the
issue, not a subjective one-sided presen-
tation.
-DAVID BLOCK
'A BOY TEN FEET TALL':
African Odyssey Finds
Adventure With a Twist
At the State Theatre
DON'T BE MISLED. "A Boy Ten Feet Tall" is not a science fiction
horror movie. Ratherhit's a surprise, an exciting, taut adventure
film with a twist. The hero is a blond, British boy of ten, whose
quick wits, courage and resourcefulness carry him through a 5000
mile odyssey across Africa. It's a new approach and its works; it's
great fun.
Fergus McClelland is an appealing discovery as the boy, Sammy.
Orphaned during an air raid on Port Said during the 1956 Suez
crisis, and friendless in this Arab town because he's English. Sammy
decides to go south to an aunt he's never seen, thousands of miles
away in South Africa.
Sammy must lie, steal and match wits with an adult world that
tries to turn him back. But always he heads south. Young McClelland
is impressive because he gains your heart, not by being cute, but
by matching up to the toughness of his environment.
Edward G. Robinson scores as the gruff white hunter complete
with grizzled beard, who poaches diamonds on the side. Whether
exaggerating about his past, tenderly recalling his dead wife, or
stalking a leopard for the kill, Robinson gives a consistently enter-
taining performance.
BRITISH DIRECTOR Alexander MacKendrick has fused this episodic
film together with suspense and humor, interspersed with the
spectacle of the African veldt. Many sequences are cut abruptly, how-
ever, which may mean distributors have tampered with the print.
What's left, however, is some of the most beautiful, honest Cinemascope
and color glimpses of the African continent.
This film is really one that appeals to all ages. Kids will pull
for Sammy and adults will enjoy the lively characters and dialogue.
"A Boy Ten Feet Tail" will be here only through Saturday night.
Go see it.
--ALAN J. GLUECKMAN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Reader Criticizes
Coverage of Teach-In
The fact that the prestigious
blue ribbon committee put a rela-
tive lack of emphasis on freshman
and sophomore academic programs
in its long range report probably
will influence the board of edu-
cation's area of concern in favor
of technical programs.
AN INCREASED emphasis on
technical education at the
two-year level could also crush
the hopes that many university
administrators have to shunt off
the great mass of undergraduates
to community colleges, leaving the
larger institutions to advanced
undergraduate and graduate edu-
cation. Michigan State University
President John Hannah declared
early this year that the state
board of education should imple-
ment such a plan in order to allow
MSU, the University and Wayne
State University to expand their
higher level programs.
The report itself recognizes a
significant obstacle to this tech-
nical emphasis: "The teachers in
the technical-vocational areas in
particular, where change is likely
to take place most rapidly, need
to have been trained to face
change."
A SECOND major alteration the
report proposes in the present
system is greatly increased board
of education controls over the
community colleges. Specifically,
there are three such controls:
-"Coordination of educational
programs among institutions," to
ensure that programs between two
community colleges or between a
community college and a four-
year' college do not overlap.
-"Coordination of campuses
and types of institutions through-
out the state." Again, this is an
attempt to prevent duplication of
effort between two colleges.
-"Administration of the formu-
la for state support and capital
outlay of community colleges."
This is the mailed fist in the
velvet glove; it means that the
board should take the financial
reins, the final arbiter of educa-
tional disputes, into its hands for
communty colleges as well as for
four-year institutions.
These three segments of the
report give it its teeth and ensure
that the diversity mentioned ear-
lier will not become wasteful du-
plication. Thomas J. Brennan,
board president, has indicated h4s
willingness to use just such in-
struments to enforce coordination
if necessary.
A THIRD major-area which the
report covers is the financing
of community college operations
and building construction.
Stating that "high tuition costs
are inconsistent with the very
philosophy of the community col-
lege, embodying the open door ad-
missions policy," the report rec-
ommends "a move toward lower
tuition charges for community
colleges." Since tuition is the
major source of operating funds
for a college, the report recog-
nizes that "in the years immedi-
ately ahead, the state will find
it necessary to provide a larger
share of the operating costs of
community colleges."
The report also recommends an
increase in state capital outlay
funds for community colleges.
Capital outlay funds have always
come to community colleges on a
catch-as-catch-can basis. Several
years ago, the state entered the
picture; last year, the Legislature
approved about $1.5 million for
community college building opera-
tions.
THE REPORT concludes its fi-
nancial portion by uring the
state to "become prepared to pro-
vide a substantially increased
amount for both operating costs
and capital costs of the commun-
ity college program." Thus it paves
the way for full-scale state com-
mitment to the community college
idea in the very near future.
TOMORROW: The "blue ribbon"
committee on instruction in Mich-
igan, higher education.
SEVERAL RANDOM reflections on spending seven and a half hours
yesterday morning being an American:
It is more significant that 26,000 students stayed home from the
Viet Nam protest than that 3000 came. The whole affair happened
because some people are repulsed by the many hypocrisies of our
"war to save freedom," but in a more important way, Viet Nam was
only the local point of some much deeper considerations.
Here we are with a war whose initiation and new directions have
not been voted on by Congress and the news of which is managed
from Washington. The war involves political and military atrocities
by the United States no less than by the Viet Cong.
It is being pursued at the conscious risk (perhaps with the con-
scious intention?) of escalation into a massive land and nuclear war
with China. North Viet Nam is being bombed in the myopic hope
that it will-even can-call off a civil war which is manned (over
90 per cent) and supplied almost wholly by the South Vietnamese and
which opposes all the militaristic regimes which have flourished under
our protection.
The war is in disfavor among virtually all our allies and a vast
majority of the American public (a recent Gallup poll indicated 82
per cent of those asked felt we should begin negotiations with China
to end the warl. Yet there is no concrete talk on our side of what
kind of settlement (if any) we would want short of Hanoi's capitula-
tion. The war is being prosecuted despite the fact that Lyndon Johnson
won an election by promising there would be no war.
It is a war we cannot win, unless slaughter and destruction of a
whole nation (North Viet Nam? Perhaps China?) are called victory.
It is being justified in the lowest of high-sounding cliches.
WHAT LED the hard core of the 3000 and their 250 teachers to
protest yesterday was a terrifying perception of the impotence of
concerned men to alter the course of this sickening war through
anything like normal channels-indeed, of their impotence to alter
anything in American foreign policy, which imposes our blind paranoia
and our arrogance and our puny missionary spirit on small nations
and which will lead to many more Viet Nam's if this one is ever
settled.
Impotent and enraged, there is nothing else a man can do but
throw himself symbolically upon the gears of the machine, hoping
that while it stops for repairs he can turn it around. And so they
gathered to placethemselves on record and to straighten out the
doubts each had on where and how to mredirect the machine. And the
crowd was swelled by those not yet enraged but curious to know.
IT WAS TOO BEAUTIFUL, for what had brought them together
was really the 26,000 who did not come and the 150 who would have
halted this sanctification of democracy had their jeers been loud
enough and their "Drop the Bomb" signs big enough.
The concept here rests on our technology, on the centralization of
decision-making and its secrecy and on our mania for specialization.
It is why the protest has been continually discounted for not originally
including anyone from the political science department: supposedly
only political scientists are qualified to have opinions on foreign affairs
worthy of respect or just attention.
But this is too generous, for really it is only the amoral technicians
and the bureaucrats with expertise in Washington (from the President
on down) who are thought qualified to run the nation.
IS IT TOO FAR-FETCHED to maintain that what mattered
Wednesday night was not what was being said but simply that non-
official, lowly citizens were speaking? To the anti-democratic would-be
aristocrats of the right, we have indeed reached the end of ideology,
and it is intolerable that anyone pretends to understand and have
an opinion on the "complex issues" of war and peace, men and
machines, poverty and affluences. Popular opinion itself no longer
seems relevant-only managerial techniques, whose sole principle is
efficiency. And while wars can be analyzed as efficient or inefficient,
peace is far too abstract.
(Witness the "Drop the Bomb" signs. It is possible the 150 meant
them just as a lark, but how ludicrous a joke. More likely, the signs
expressed the unadmitted and unadmittable urge to expunge all
insecurities and complexities in one grand, masculine gesture.)
It's a dog-in-the-manger kind of concept: the unfortunate who
is too awed and frightened by the world will not allow anyone else
the right. to understand or feel or want to participate-anyone except
hired hands trained specifically to assume the world's annoying
burdens. Hired hands can certainly participate in making decisions,
and perhaps they can understand, but it is doubtful if they can feel.
NOWHERE IS THERE the notion that citizenship and the capacity
to have worthwhile opinions on social policies require nothing more
than a feeling one has something at stake in those policies. Knowledge
flows naturally from here-from a broad, unbiased reading of the
press, from thinking, from questioning.
So even more basically, the point is that those represented by the
150 have never felt society mattered to them; their primary concern
is only to be left alone by forces with which they cannot cope and
which they must therefore destroy or forget. If sometimes these
people seek power, it is only to subvert its potential more effectively
by subdividing it, by hiding with it behind the multiple, "complex"
masks which men in high places wear in order that they never have
to face their supplicants squarely.
So the 3000 gathered to say passionately why Americans should
have a stake in Viet Nam, and how to gain that stake by asserting
their right to participate in important decisions. And so the 150
howled and thrust their white signs into the air to say passionately,
we do not care and we do not understand, and therefore others should
not care and others should not understand.
THE 26,000? It was not their absence that was conspicuous and
bothersome, but rather their potential presence-among the 150 who
were afraid this country was getting a little democracy.
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Student Judic: Too Weak
STUDENT JUDICIARY, at its best, can
be invaluable to the University. It can
guarantee the student's right to a fair
trial by his peers, it can check the pow-
er of staff to direct student affairs; and
it can give judiciary members valuable
experience in law enforcement.,
Student judiciary, at its worst, can
be a perversion of justice and of student
participation. It can be a tool of the
staff and administration, hiding their
tight control of judiciary matters be-
hind a facade of student decision, inef-
fectual and hypocritical.
UNFORTUNATELY, the University judi-
ciary system today, because it is close-
ly controlled by the administration and
staff, is far too weak to come close to
fulfilling its duties toward the students.
Imagine a court where the accused is
not given a copy of the charges against
hm ,' .n a -h na, h a ,4an +iis a n -
was the Joint Judiciary Council until
1963, when the constitution was changed
to give the student these rights.
But several months after the revision,
during the summer of 1963, the Office of
Student Affairs added an appendix to the
constitution, providing for a Referral
Committee of staff members to handle
"severe and delicate" cases. Once again
the guarantee of the student's right to a
fair, open trial disappeared.
THIS CLAUSE, which is still in effect,
destroys the most important function
of student judiciary: to provide for a stu-
dent charged with a "severe or delicate"
offense a trial by those who can under-
stand the situation, sympathize with the
problem, and penetrate the excuses. At
the present time, most of the cases han-
dled by student judiciary bodies are un-
complicated and uncontroversial.
IT IS with outrage, with the
nauseous taste of bile in my
mouth, that I read Thursday's
Daily.
Someone (a former Daily editor)
once told me of the awesome sense
of responsibility he felt as editor
because he was a part of the last
"outpost" of free journalism in the
country-a' college newspaper that
was bound by no faculty bias, no
administrative timidity, no mone-
tary fears. That editor would taste
bile too if he read this morning's
Daily.
FOR WHAT have you done but
abdicated your responsibility?
It is as simple as that; I cannot
excuse it as a mistake for you
and your staff are "big people"
and know "big" news when you
see it. I read the faculty gets a
raise, that ELI students have prob-
lems. Where in hell is your head
man? Do you not read the news-
papers, do you not have your ear
to the students?
Last night thousands of stu-
dents, faculty, townspeople came
together to attempt to re-evaluate
American foreign policy, a policy
that now seems in the hands
that Eisenhower warned us of, a
policy that began on the heels of
the fascist French rape of Viet
Nam, stumbled past lie after lie,
exposed its own lies in a "White
Paper" that is worse than a white
lie, that is worse than whitewash.
Again-where was The Daily
Wednesday night? To read your
paper I would assume, incorrectly,
that a bomb or threat of bomb is
more important than the thou-
sands of bombs that are being
dropped in the name of all Ameri-
cans in Viet Nam. It does not take
a "crusading" newspaper to re-
port, to interpret outrage against
unreasoned bombings(if any bomb-
ing indeed, is reasonable). Yet The
dreds of people from all sectors
of the country, from all religious
and social backgrounds, attempted
for one evening to penetrate
"labels," to reason together to un-
derstanding and action.
IF AT any time I ever felt com-
passion for my brothers, it was
then-then when one person after
another humbled himself in the
name of his brother and struggled
toward understanding, however
imperfect. It was painful, but
somehow very encouraging. Yet
you have failed to record it, failed
to interpret it for a wider audience,
but yourselves and whatever high-
er principles you appeal to for
ultimate justification.
-George Abbott White, '66
,
'OFFSET':
4
-I
i
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"OFFSET" is a noble idea, and
the first issue seems to me
very distinguished. The University
has badly needed a journal with
broad appeal to provide discourse
between the thought of various
disciplines, between scholars and
writers, and between students and
faculty. OFFSET is not arty, pre-
cious, cliquish, nor written pri-
marily by its own staff.
The two major contributions by
members of the faculty, Professor
Oleg Grabar's report on the Uni-
versity's archeological expedition
to Syria in 1964, and the novel
and fascinating "Casos" by Profes-
sor Enrique Anderson- Imbert, both
so far as I know hitherto unpub-
lished, are respectively humanistic
discourse and literary art of high
quality, not i nthe least conde-
~1
Nor is the interest of the pub-
lication limited to honors stu-
dents, though students in the lit-
erary college Honors Programs
have brought it into being, except
insofar as Honors represents the
best that is thought and said on
the campus. Indeed, the issue ends
not so much with a bang as a
hoot with an outrageous parody
of "The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock" by Paul Sawyer partly
at the expense of honors students.
I SHALL LIMIT my comments on
the specific contents of the re-
view so as not to interfere with
the reader's own reaction to it.
Three creative essays are highly
thoughtful and will prove, I think,
quite sufficiently demanding:
"Falling Up: Into the Realm of
Emeritus Cornelius van Nostrum
deals with it, but seems to me
somewhat amateurish. The per-
sona is not maintained with Swift-
ian consistency, and the problem
is not so much that social-scien-
tific organizations would treat an-
imals as people as that they would
treat people as things.
"K ATHERINE" BY Howard
Wolf, a study of a dying 57-
year old woman writer, is the
major piece of fiction. With some-
thing of the compression of An-
derson-Imbert's "cases" it presents
a whole novel as a brief story. I
like it all but the ending, which
perhaps I misunderstand. Harris
Liechti's "A Sad Jar of Atoms"
also depends too heavily on its
ending and is in fact not a story
partments" on the Michigan Arts
Chorale, the Junior Year Abroad,
and Campus Security, the first
two by Associate Editor Carolyn
Teich, ought to have been merely
functional but are considerably
more. Very thoroughly researched
and written with care and a nice
play of wit they remind one more
if I may say so on this page) of
the reports in the "New Yorker"
than of those in The Daily.
THIS FIRST ISSUE of "Offset"
is dated the Ides of March-
hence its tribute to Julius Caesar.
But obviously it did not proceed
with quite the inevitability of the
assassination of Caesar, and the
strain and haste of getting out a
new publication are doubtless re-
sponsible for the misprints. mis-
k