i#...... .' Seventy-Fifth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Michigan MAD Describe Briefly... By Robert Johnston* LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Johnson's Latest Speech Said Nothing New where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, M]CH-. Truth Wil 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. SUNDAY, 11 APRIL 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: SCOTT BLECH The Answer To Prof. Rice: '1Ma rMaketh Manners' THERE ARE PROFESSORS at this uni- versity who dress impeccably, whose manners are excellent, who present dry, stale lectures, discourage original think- ing in papers and examinations, and make it clear that they do not welcome any closer contact with the students than the distance from the podium to the first row of seats. With this type of anti-education in University classrooms, Prof. Warner Rice, chairman of the English depart- ment, finds it of major importance to express his disgust with the lack of so- cial decorum displayed by some of the students and faculty. The standards of dress and manners criticized in Prof. Rice's "Memorandum on the Restoration of Discipline Among Members of the University" appear to be such unforgiveable sins as smoking in University classrooms and offices and wearing sport shirts or sweaters instead of jackets and neckties by teachers. He repeatedly objects to these digressions from his admittedly "old-fashioned" so- cial preferences as "vulgar" and "slat- ternly." The memorandum goes far beyond the limits of appropriateness in its inflam- matory, overcharged tone. Such state- ments as "there must be an engagement along a wide front. Reformation will not be easy," applied to petty vandalism and poor taste in dress and manners, are almast laughable. They show an incred- ible lack of awareness of the true prob- lems facing the University community. PROF. RICE'S memorandum represents conventional morality; it substitutes conformity to social conventions for self- respect, self-discipline, and true cour- tesy. 'Its result is the neglect of real values for false ones, interest in social standards rather than personal ones. It also represents social and economic class. snobbery. Such pointed references as "areas and strata of society," "bad money drives out .good," and "if gold rusts, what will iron do?" clearly reveal the real sources of dissatisfaction. If those of us from different "strata of society" than the one Prof. Rice ad- heres to do not like being compared to iron, we should realize that we are not required .to actually come from this so- cial class, but only to act as though we do. This type of social distinction should certainly be officially absent, and ideally be truly absent from the concerns of any public institution, particularly an institution of public education. Prof. Rice's memorandum also objects to advertisements and ticket sales in the central campus area. Perhaps Prof. Rice does not realize that the central campus is the only area, at a University of this size, that is accessible to everyone. WHEN PROF. RICE says that the bene- fits coming from many of the super- ior extracurricular opportunities readily available at the University are overshad- owed by the amount of inevitable dis- traction and litter in the Fishbowl, he is once again giving superficial considera- tions precedence over less tangible, but more worthwhile benefits. Of course, this argument is irrelevant if one does not recognize the importance of out-of-class activities to a human edu- cation. If there were no APA at the University, no student dramatic and mu- sical presentations, no extra academic events, perhaps Prof. Rice does not think that the educational level of the Univer- sity would be damaged. It would be damaged very seriously. In a society where the amount of leisure time available is growing every year, where earning constructive uses of leis- ude is becoming a necessary part of a complete education, extracurricular ac- tivities are important to everyone, stu- dents and teachers alike. THE FIRST SENTENCE of the body of Prof. Rice's memorandum reveals the flaw in his philosophy of education, "Ac- cording to the tradition of humane edu- cation," he says, "one of the functions of an academy or college is to shape and temper the character of each pupil through the enforcement of standards which apply not only to intellectual mat- ters, but also to moral and social con- duct." This is a distortion of the goals of edu- cation. The road to the development of character lies not in the enforcement of standards, but the guidance to standards. The goal of education is to prepare the student to choose his own intellectual, social, and moral standards, on the bas- is of what he has learned, both inside and outside the classroom. PROF. RICE QUOTES the old maxim, "Manners maketh man." A member of the academic community, supposedly an advocate of the examined life, of the so- ciety guided by reason, not primarily by tradition, should say instead, "Man mak- eth manners." -CAROLE KAPLAN EXAMS, TAXES and death seem to be inevitable-in that order. And this year, thanks to trimester, exams and taxes seem to be run- ning together. From now until exams end two weeks from Tuesday, those gruel- ing two-hour essays into 14 weeks' work will be upper-most on every- body's worry list. Given the at- tention that naturally focuses on them, it would seem only proper that recipients and dispensers of exams have some idea of what they are good for. So that's the first question, What are exam results expected to indicate? Now I would hypo- thesize that a useful answer would be "proficiency in a given subject matter." But what, pray tell, is profi- ciency? Is it an ability to recall names or dates, or other "facts"? Is someone who can jot down the longest list of such facts in the shortest time the most proficient, assuming they all are taken from the subject matter of the course? Clearly not, for one date, 1492 for instance, is irrelevant by itself. IN ORDER to make 1492 a bit of information t ha t someone should be expected to know on an exam, a lot of other facts are needed. And, more importantly, they must be properly associated and interconnected in the exam- taker's mind for them to be the least bit useful. When the fact, "1492," is pre- sented to the student, it should set off in his mind a whole train of associated "facts;" discovery of America, Columbus, the Santa Maria, Ferdinand and Isabella, 15th century Spain, and so on in ever-widening circles. But this is just the first stage. As these circles of facts are built up and properly related and in- terconnected in the student's. mind, he begins to move into the realm of ideas. Ivy Leaguers have long recognized smidgens of ideas, as opposed to collections of facts, as "cepts;" that is, the beginning of concept. A cept is a word for a simple, little one-sentence handle for some idea. A rough example, taken randomly from a book at hand is, "The Soviet-type society, is based on an economic system that is planned highly centralized, au- thoritarian." One can thus begin to accumulate and relate cepts in one's mind the same way that one accumulates and relates facts. Once again, if the student fol- lows what is happening, he will move further into the realm of ideas and start coming up with concepts. Given enough cepts on the Soviet economy, for example, one should begin to get some idea of how to fit together a larger concept of how the Soviet econ- omy is put together and why and how it works. UNFORTUNATELY, it is all too easy to stop short at any level of these various levels of thought and rest content with a simple re- tailing of facts, cepts, or concepts, depending on how far one's stud- ies have progressed. The standard exam is probably after facts and cepts and their interrelationships. Concepts are rarely encouraged, because of difficulties in grading, in interpretation and in differ- ences of opinion between the grader and exam writer. But even after the student be- gins to pack concepts away in his mind, there is still much that can be done. Concepts can be fitted together and related to build up larger concepts. For instance, a very largeenumber of concepts could be behind an all-encom- passing, detailed concept of what 18th century Europe was all about. It is also possible to step up to a higher level of analysis. With a good store of concepts built up, the student can go on to deal in theory, thus completing the con- tinum from fact to theory. If the structure is a sound one, if the supply of facts, cepts and con- cepts is neither stifling nor hope- lessly scattered and if the student has proceded from each level to the next on the basis of his own understanding and ability to set up the prerequisite interrelation- ships, the theory will be useful. HE IS NOW in a position to go back into the structure from which the theory proceded and cut out everything which is not really needed for an understand- ing of the structure of, for ex- ample, America in the 20th cen- tury or Milton's poetry or some field in physics or math. With sufficient openness of mind on the student's part, the theory of what 20th century America is all about will bemodi- fied by additions to the structure in the form of new facts, cepts or concepts or new interrelationships within or among these that had not been recognized before. In the same way, the student can use the theory as a tool to modify and codify his thought on the subject, to fill in missing links,. to draw new connections between concepts, thus coming up with some significant new ideas or ways of looking at things. Few of the standard essay ques- tions even begin to measure this sort of proficiency, and, unfor- tunately, students respond in kind. It is further apparent that few courses are the beast bit close to imparting this sort of proficiency in their subject matter to the students. As the great concern with exams would indicate, the object has become much more to impart the subject matter without the proficiency. This causes some severe imbal- ances, for such proficiency is, once acquired, applicable to almost any subject. A student who has acquired this proficiency in one subject will have developed a uni- fied, personal approach to any subject which will make things much easier both for him and for the rest of his teachers who must otherwise spoon-feed him every- thing they expect him to know. TEACHERS, in making out their exams, should ask them- selves what they are asking of theirstudents and how the results should be interpreted. If they really want to worry, they can also wonder why they ask of their students what they do. Does the student come away from a course with a head stuffed with facts, cepts and concepts poured in by lectures and reading lists, or with a well-organized head better able to work not only with the subject matter presented but with any subject matter its owner cares to attack? Exams are hardly ends in them- selves, and any attitude which makes them so in indicative of a frightening tendency to make the courses themselves ends instead of means. The easiest criterion might be whether or not the exam questions require answers, be they facts, cepts or concepts, or critical analysis. WHEN A student leaves a course, any attitude which views the exam as the end and not the beginning of that course reveals a student who learned nothing and a teacher who might better have been a salesman. To the Editor: PRESIDENT Johnson's J o h n Hopkins speech on Viet Nam was merely the most high-power- ed of his administration's recur- rent attempts to make its ob- stinacy look like conciliation, its unreason look like reason, its war look like peace. Does the speech say anything new? ABOUT THE background of the war: The first reality is that North Viet Nam has attacked the independent nation of South Viet Nam. Its object is total conquest. . . . Of course, some of the people of South Viet Nam are participating in attack on their own govern- ment, but trained men and sup- plies, orders, and arms flow in a constant stream from North to South. This support is the heartbeat of the war. The preponderance of expert testimony is that the *war began in the South without direction from the North and that even if it didn't, it has by now taken on a "life of its own" (says former French Foreign Minister Faure). Even assuming the administra- tion's own published figures to be correct, 80 per cent of Viet Cong personnel are southern and 85 per cent of their armaments are procured in the South. The active native force numbers at least 90,000 and possibly 120,000-and it is known to be growing every day, not because of infiltration but because of local recruiting and government defections. ABOUT THE domino theory: Let no one think that a re- treat from VietkNam would bring an end to conflict. The battle would be renewed in one country and then another. The central lesson of our time is that the appetite of aggression is never satisfied. To withdraw from one battlefield is only to prepare for the next. If revolutionary insurgency is generated by real and deep griev- ances, not by push-button conspir- ators at mythical command posts, then the famous domino analogy does not hold. What happens in one Southeast Asian country will be largely dependent on its gov- ernment's ability to guarantee peace and development, not onl what happens in neighboring countries. Little Cambodia has re- mained stable and neutral despite years of strife in neighboring Laos and South Viet Nam.... ABOUT negotiations: We remain ... ready .. . for unconditional discussions. The guerrillas have always re- garded cease-fire as the precon- dition of negotiations. and our Korean experience should have taught us too that this makes sense. Otherwise, tomorrow's bat- tlefield reverse can undermine to- day's diplomatic breakthrough. Further, by not stipulating that we would negotiate with the guer- rillas' National Liberation Front, Johnson continues to insist that they are completely controlled by Hanoi-a view which few outside Washington hold and which the failure of the bomb-the North strategy has by now shown to be wrong. Finally, Johnson has still not said what he would "uncondition- ally discuss." A new southern gov- ernment? One that includes Na- tional Liberation Front leaders? With free elections that everybody knows the left would win? One that demands U.S. withdrawal? That seeks reunification with the North under Ho Chi Minh? ABOUT CREATING the eco- nomic and political conditions for peace: I will ask the Congress to join in a billion-dollar Ameri- can investment in this (develop- ment) effort as soon as it is underway. But what will the billion dollars buy? Will America underwrite land reform, wealth redistribu- tion and a vital village democracy, or will we just display another Mekong Rivei TVA somewhere? What effect has that project had on stemming the country's rebel- lion against U.S.-backed Saigon? Are we really trying to do any- thing but buy these people off with our promise or riches, be- cause we are unwilling to face Viet Nam's burning political prob- lems and the deep disaffection of the peasantry from 11 years of U.S.-backed Saigon government? JOHNSON HAS said nothing new. He is conning Americans now as he did all through his peace-hawking campaign. He has not changed. He has no new ideas. He is still chauffering the world into the most nonsensical and in- human risk that the Cold War has so far created. Meanwhile, the prospect of "that bright and necessary day of peace" grows dimmer. -Carl Ogelsby Todd Gitlin William P. Livant .k, Y, LAST GLANCES The Years Raise More Questions, Answer Few s Medicare: It's About Time By JOHN KENNY Assistant Managing Editor, 1964-1965 'SIT AT my typewriter. The I apartment kitchen is cluttered with the remains of last night's snacks. The floor is covered with slippers, textbooks, old newspapers. The girls in the next apartment giggle and squabble. Outside, spring has come to Ann Arbor. And with spring, finals then graduation-without speeches but with a mailed diploma, the pain- less way. To try to summarize what four years of a college education and what countless hours on The Daily have meant to me is impossible. Because I have no answers. Or very few. I have no overriding philosophi- cal, or pseudo-philosophical state- ments to make. I can only naively ask questions. IF AN INABILITY at proferring solutions to some of the Univer- THE UNITED STATES has finally made a move to catch up with the major- iy of the industrialized world in the field of health care for the aged. The pass- age of the administration's Medicare bill by the House Thursday night marked a major victory for those who would pro- vide for the aged in America the same type of benefits that have been avail- able to Englishmen since 1945 and Swedes since 1932. More than 20 million persons will be the beneficiaries of the health bill, which will be financed by raising payroll taxes for most workers and their employers through the Social Security System. Basic hospitalization and nursing care benefits will be paid with this money, while ma- jor doctor bills and many other medical expenses will be payable through a sup- plementary voluntary program. All persons over 65 will automatically receive the basic benefits and can ob- tain the voluntary benefits by paying premiums of $3 a month. THE PASSAGE of the health bill by the House-and its almost certain pass- age by the Senate and signing by the Ifir i alt alyg Acting Editorial Staff ROBER'I JOHNSTON, Editor. LAURENCE KIRSHBAUM JEPS'PEY GOOTlMAN Managing Editor Editorial Director JUDITH WARREN................Personnel Director President-will mark final defeat for the forces opposing minimal publicly sponsor- ed health care, focusing around the American Medical Association. The AMA pulled out all the financial stops this year to defeat Medicare, and even pre- sented an alternate, more "moderate" plan," which would have financed the health care out of the general treasury, sidestepping the Social Security System which is the focus of the present bill. A reasonable facsimile of the AMA pro- posal, sponsored by conservative Repub- licans and some Democrats, was defeated by only 30 votes in the House prior to the passage of Medicare. The Medicare bill gets an all-important "foot in the door" and will open the way for eventual widening of Social Security benefits to include all those unable to care for themselves. The AMA proposal, while providing al- most as many immediate benefits, would have cut off health care from the re- sources and potential for expansion of the Social Security System. It would have been a dead end, for further expansion of health care through general treasury revenues would have been impractical and probably politically impossible. MEDICARE, OF COURSE, marks only the beginning of the battle for complete public health care in the United States. The aged in the U.S. are still relatively worse off than those in any other major industrial country. And to provide an ex- Some Good Advice sity's pressing educational prob- lems, if a lack of answers to ques- tions like "What is (was or should be) a University education?" in- dicate serious flaws in my own educational achievements, then I acknowledge them. If I should be able to tell you what is "liberalizing" about a lib- eral education, but can't, then I am tempted to say, this is my fault. But is it? Can distribution re- quirements, course sequences, a mid-term, two blue books and a final give me the answers to these questions? Should they? OR SHOULD the answers to questions like "Is the physical and mental pain worth that crummy piece of paper-a diploma soon to be stuffed in a drawer and yellow with age?" have come from the instructors I've had? Answers haven't come from in- structors, especially those who do not seem to care about the stu- dent-beyond questions about the topic of his next "five to seven page paper." So these are the questions I'm left with-and some of the an- swers I'm unable to give. Along the same academic lines, I ask about the "Harvard of the Midwest" image the public rela- tons people like to dispense. It doesn't exist at the undergraduate level. Why are undergraduates made to suffer so the University can further its graduate and re- search image? Why do I have to put up with incompetent teaching fellows who openly acknowledge their inten- tion to work equivalent to their salary-very little? Why must sit and listen-or sleep-while pro- fessors drone the text back to me? I WONDER what happened to the desire I once had to study, to pursue knowledge just because it was fun and worth it. Have the creeping barbarisms of multiver- sity education choked off any creativity I once had? The whole idea that any inkling of what made Shakespeare one of the world's greatest dramatists can be conveyed in one course is easy way out is here to stay. Again I ask why, but come up with no answers. I OFTEN PROFESS to be a liberally educated man and extol the virtues of a humanistic ap- proach to life. At the same time, I tend to scoff at the engineer, plotting the course of a cybernated society with his slide rule. I praise the humanist who considers man both rational and emotional. Yet I ask myself, "Doesn't the en- gineer consider my approach to be irrelevant, pedantic, medieval and above all impractical?" Maybe he's right. Maybe hu- manists are people who refuse to face the realities of modern so- ciety, who refuse to recognize the possibilities of progress through science. I wonder. The engineers and the scientists at least have answers where I-after a four- year humanistic education-hate only questions. As I look at the University and the Ann Arbor community further questions plague me. I wonder what the physical plant of a Uni- versity of 50,000 will look like in ten years? I wonder if Ann Arbor will become a town with row after row of slightly varied, equally tasteless "modern" apartment buildings. BUT MORE than these ques- tions, I wonder what the college student of 1975 will be like. Will the majority still complain, but only mildly, about the factory-like educational mill? Or will admin- istrators and educators, through exciting, bold possibilities such as those the residential college offers, devise a means of inspiring at least a fraction of the student body with enthusiasm for knowl- edge, with a realization of the im- portance of four years of learn- ing, instead of four years of get- ting a degree? Will the physical size of the University even further stack up barriers to prevent communication between students? Will the stu- dent of 1975 say, with T. S. Eliot's Prufrock: And I have known the eyes already, known them all- The eyes that fix you in a form- ulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling in a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the but-ends of my days and ways? Will student activities slide even further down the slippery tobog- gan slide toward inevitable death? Or will they somehow, perhaps quietly, realize a surge of new blood and new life? Optimistically, I hope students will further their search for meaningfulness on the campus, that this search will at least lead them to participate in some student activity, even if they soon discover "it isn't for them." Like many other Americans I wonder what has happened to "the land of the free and the home of the brave" when Negroes are clubbed and beaten and denied the right to vote. Ann Arbor may not be Selma, but discrimination exists here in the subtler form of the landlord who doesn't adver- tise his apartments because he won't rent to Negroes. I wonder why the United States is at war in a Southeast Asian nation whose people don't want our troops and "military advisors" there. I question the democratic pro- cess when an overwhelming major- ity vote down a Goldwater only to find that a Johnson adopts the same dangerous and irresponsible policies a few months later. IN A COUPLE of weeks I'll join the American minority who can claim a college education. As a Daily senior editor I have followed and been informed about many important University decisions. I probably know more about the whats and whys of the University than the average student. Yet all I really can do is ask these few questions, and maybe they're not the right ones after all. But I keep on asking, keep look- ing for answers. And more ques- tions. r TWO MAIN ARGUMENTS are advanced in favor of the pro- position that the people should rally behind the President and not criticize his Vietnamese poli- cies. One is that only the Presi- dent has all the facts and there- fore only he has the right to judge. The truth is that nobody has all the facts and nobody needs them all. What both the President and his critics need and have are the rel- evant facts and what they need more than anything else is sound judgment. No one man can have a monopoly of that judgment. More particularly, the President cannot have it under the present conditions. It must be obvious to anyone who is acquainted with the Presi- ELECTRICITY, TOO: Folk Festival Ends in Variety At Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre VARIETY WAS the keynote of the two closing events of the Folk Festival last night. Danny Kalb, virtuoso blues guitarist cur- rently experimenting with an electrified instrument, underscor- ed Friday night's display of "Folk Rock" and Rhythm and Blues during the Saturday afternoon concert. He quickly established himself as the "Barney Kessel of for the blues. RAY TATE, native Kentuck and director of the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, emceed the evening concert and, in addi- tion, treated the crowd to some very fancy flat-picking remini- scent of Doc Watson as he played several old country favorites, in- cluding "Sugarfoot" and "Soldier's Joy." With "Schizophrenia Blues" and "What Goes Up Must Come "I Wander Where I Will." Mullen got the house to chime in on "Worried Man Blues." THE SMOOTHLY harmonizing duo of Frank and McIntyre, from MSU, were among the best-re- ceived acts of the evening with "Blue" and "Cindy Jane;" their guitar work was excellent. Denny Roseman of the University math department demonstrated t h e most inventive mouth-harp work