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EDITED AND MANAGED BY STCDENTS OP THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY Op &OARD IN CONTROL OF STtTmENT PUDLICATIONS
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
The Residential College:
Where Are the Critics?
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1964 NJiHT ii lT OR )1: +Jx11RiY ()U01)MAN
Screen of Respectability
Shields Apartment Project
JT'S TIME that the community realize
exactly what is happening between lo-
cal forces opposing the South University
18-story apartment building, presently
represented by the Ann Arbor Property
Owners' Association, and the owners of
that building. Such a smoke screen of re-
spectability has gone up around the issue
that the unflattering absurdities have
been pretty well concealed.
The Ann Arbor Property Owners' As-
sociation was formed "to provide an or-
ganization for the clearing of ideas and
the solving of problems common to all
such property owners." Commercial prop-
erty owners, that is.
Several "coincidences" have surrounded
the existence of this organization, "coin-
cidences" which local businessmen and
city officials have been reluctant to speak
about. And yet these "coincidences" form
an extremely interesting pattern.
FIRST STEP in the chain of "coinci-
dences" is the timing of the formation
of the association. It was incorporated in
Lansing on October 2, 1964. And when
did concern about the high-rise apart-
ment building reach its peak in Ann
Arbor? Some time around the end of
September or the beginning of October
is a tempting estimate.
The second interesting "coincidence"
is the subject with which the association
BRITAIN'S NEW prime minister, Harold
Wilson, heads a Labor Party with a
five-seat edge in Parliament. Should half
a dozen members of his party vote
against him or just not be present to
support him on a vote of confidence new
elections would probably have to be
called-elections which could easily put-
Wilson out of office.
But Wilson is going ahead full speed
with controversial programs to nation-
alize the steel industry, abolish the death
penalty and more closely supervise big
business, among other things.
LYNDON JOHNSON, elected President
in his own right, heads a Democratic
Party with a two-thirds majority in both
houses of Congress. He was elected by
the largest populary plurality in history.
He is assured of keeping his office for
four years.
Does he dare push as hard?
-E HERSTEIN
has exclusively concerned itself. The
above statement of purpose sounds rath-
er altruistic. Perhaps another quote from
the association's incorporation papers
would be more accurate: the association
is formed in order to "advance and pro-
mote the commercial and civic interests"
of property owners. Considering that the
association has done little since Octo-
ber 2 but worry about the 18-story apart-
ment building, the first interest seems the
more germane of the two.
Why then did the association bother to
mention "civic interest?" As a rationale
for the third "coincidence," naturally.
And that "coincidence" was that the
association's only action since forma-
tion has been to attack the South 'U'
apartment building and to act as the
community's disseminator of doubt re-
garding its practicality and the possible
success. The "coincidence" here is that
when association members decided to get
moral about building codes, they did so
concerning the only project in the area
which they admittedly felt to be a threat
to their economic security. Of all the
technically illegal buildings in Ann Ar-
bor, the association just happened to
pick this one to attack and bring before
the Department of Building and En-
gineering Safety.
THERE AREN'T a great variety of con-
clusions about the real purposee of
the property owners' association which
can be reached upon observation of these
facts. Specifically, there is only one: that
the Ann Arbor Property Owners' Asso-
ciation is simply "out to get" the apart-
ment building in any way possible. This,
and not any vague references to serving
the community's good by improving its
buildings, is the reason why R. C. Weaver
Co., Inc. and Towne Realty Co., Inc. are
now before the Housing Appeals Board.
It takes only simple observation, re-
quiring only an honest observer, to see
that. the selfish interests of a relatively
small number of local businessmen are
obstructing a building which will aid a
great number of local citizens and stu-
dents.
Local citizens must realize that what
is now occupying their Housing Appeals
Board is not a legitimate complaint. It is
a blocking tactic, the only intent of
which is to further inconvenience the
builders.
Once this is realized, the illusion of re-
spectability which has surrounded the
entire complaint falls away and the mat-
ter appears as the ridiculous farce it is.
-LEONARD PRATT
17 'lip 7 f
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"WNtI~ WAY To T AE
NVMNST REAMA1J
TODAY AND TOMORROW:
Election Confirms Predictions
To the Editor:
IN THE DAILY of Thursday, Oc-
tober 29, 1964, Jeffrey Good-
man wrote an editorial about my
policy of publicizing the whole
planning procedure for the Resi-
dential College. Aside from a cer-
tain mild skepticism on the part
of the Residential College Plan-
ning Committee, which was yet
tolerant enough to go along with
me, I have received no comments
whatsoever.
I can explain this absence of
response on several hypotheses:
1) no one reads Daily editorials,
2) if they read them, they pay no
heed, 3) Thuma is a fool and we
shall sit by and let him cut his
own throat, 4) it's a good idea
and there's no need to comment.
Nevertheless, I thought it might
help if I myself explained a little
about what I had in mind.
SOMEONE, I think Churchill,
has said something to the effect
that democracy is a sorry system,
but no one yet has thought of a
better. I agree. In the University,
I have struggled with the problems
inherent in a democratic system
for years, but still think it is
worth the struggle. Insofar as the
notion is relevant to the Residen-
tial College, may I say that it
would be far easier and more ex-
peditious if I sat down and, oc-
casionally consulting with a few
others, -set the specifications for
the residence halls, the classrooms
and the curriculum. The result
might, by accident, be a huge suc-
cess. On the other hand, it might
prove dismal failure, not only be-
cause of my ineptitude,' but also
because of the resulting non-
cooperation by almost everyone
else in the University. Since, ob-
viously. I want the Residential
College to be a reasonable suc-
cess, and since I have a certain
modesty about my own capabili-
ties, I am convinced that I need
widespread participation f r o m
both faculty and administration
in planning the Residential Col-
lege.
Under current procedures com-
munication is slow. Actions of the
Faculty Planning Committee and
the Student Advisory Committee,
I am obligated to communicate to
the faculty, to the Dean and Exe-
cutive Committee of the College,
to the administrative officers, and
through them to the Regents. I
could, of course, send the minutes
of both of our committees around
to all these bodies, but the process
is slow, expensive and does not
reach those who are not in the
system. Since we have at hand a
very rapid and widely distributed
means of communication, The
Daily, why not use it?
* * *
THERE ARE, of course, dangers.
The reporting may be inaccurate
and misleading. My own criticism
of The Daily has been as loud as
anyone else's on this point. At the
moment, however, I have a great
deal of confidence in the ability
and integrity of the three mem-
bers of The Daily staff with whom
I have come in close contact-Neil
Berkson,. Kenneth Winter and
Jeffrey Goodman. Their reporting,
thus far, on the Residential Col-
lege I think has been excellent.
They have been scrupulous in
clearing with me before publica-
tion.
It is further true that reports
on the early planning stages may
well be confusing. It must be and
will be made clear that the deci-
sions are tentative and both the
Faculty Planning Committee and
the Student Advisory Committee
reserve the right to change their
collective minds. Furthermore, no
final decisions will be made with-
out prior report. Presently I see
no exceptions to this, except those
decisions which involve the ap-
pointment of people to positions
in the Residential College opera-
tion. The reasons for this, I think,
are obvious.
There is the additional possibil-
ity that people will become fed up
with the Residential College be-
cause of the continuing publicity.
If this develops I can only hope
that people will say so.
* *
FINALLY, I hope people with-
in the hierarchy will temporarily
suspend their usual demand for
prior notification of anything
which is to appear in the public
press. May I repeat, no final de-
cisions will be made until every-
one who is legitimately involved
has had an opportunity to express
himself. Finally, I hope everyone
who is interested in the Residen-
tial College will read The. Daily
articles and not just the headlines.
If anyone has ideas or criticisms
I hope he will either call me,
write me, or, preferably, write The
Daily. If the general conclusion is
that Thuma is an ass, it is much
better for the University if this
comes to public notice, rather
than to remain the knowledge of
only a select few,
-Burton D. Thuma,
Associate Dean of the
Literary college
Director, Residential
College
4
Panhel
By WALTER LIPPMANN
THE RETURNS have confirmed
m a most remarkable way the
findings of the national polls, par-
ticularly the Harris and the Gal-
lop. They reported that Johnson
and Humphrey would win by a
majority in the range between 60
and 70 per cent of the votes cast,
and that this would give them a
landslide majority in the electorial
college.
The returns confirm also the
predictions of the leading anti-
Goldwater Republicans, notably
Governors Rockefeller and Scran-
ton, who warned their party that
the nomination of Goldwater
would be a devastating blow to the
Republican Party in the leading
Republican states of the East and
Middle West.
At the same time the returns
prove the falsity of the claim,
which has been put forward since
the Roosevelt days, that there is
a great, silent latent majority of
"conservative" Republicans who
will emerge as soon as the Repub-
lican Party turns its back on "me-
tooism" and offers them "a
choice."
THE JOHNSON MAJORITY is
indisputable proof that the pre-
ponderant mass of the American
voters are in the center, inside the
two extremes, and that the reason
the Democrats win is that Ken-
nedy and Johnson have worked
carefully and deliberately to make
the Democratic Party represent
the center.
This surely is the primary man-
date of the 1964 election, a man-
date to both parties to seek their
strength and define their issues
I
I
4
'THE VISIT':
Hollywood Fails with
Minor Modern Classic
within, not against, the prevailing
consensus. Senator Goldwater took
the Republican Party down to a
catastrophic' defeat because he
made himself the leader, or at
least the rallying point, of an
extremist rebellion against the will
of the great majority of Ameri-
cans. The will of the majority has
prevailed over him.
The election is a resounding vote
of confidence in the capacity of
President Johnson to represent the
will of the great majority. The
campaign did not produce a pre-
view of what his administration
will do about the myriad of spe-
cific programs, and this was for-
tunate. For the real business of
the campaign was not to map out
a course for the future. It was to
beat and crush a rebellion against
the established and accepted line
of domestic and foreign policy
which was laid down in the gen-
eration which followed the great
depression and the second world
war.
* * *
SO ON the day after election it
is too early, and in fact beside
the point, to attempt to read into
the returns an outline of the poli-
tics of the Johnson administra-
tion. It is too early also to attempt
to read ,into the Republican dis-
aster a prescription for the party's
salvation and survival. But the
first lesson for the Republicans is
clear-that they will not prosper
if they surrender, as they did at
.San Francisco, and do not stand.
up for their own beliefs. The re-
turns, which leave the Republican
Party with virtually nothing more
than a handful of states, won by
racist votes, is a squalid and hu-
miliating consequence of the San
Francisco surrender.
What Johnson should do with
his victory and what the Repub-
licans can do with their defeat is
as yet unanswerable: it is rather
like trying on the morning after
an earthquake to select the cur-
tains and the rugs for the houses
which will be built when the dam-
age has been studied and the dust
has settled.
(c) 1964, The Washington Post Co.
To the Editor:
SOME OF THE THINGS report-
ed about Panhellenic's new
rush proposal strike me as being
rather foolish, while others ap-
pear as downright idiotic.
The statement by Bari Telfer
that Panhel wanted all the houses
to appear equal is amazing. Why
would they want to make them
appear equal when they are ob-
viously not? What would be gain-
ed? Perhaps this is one of the
things Miss Telfer refers to as the
artificiality of the sorority sys-
temn.
Rush mixers are probably pretty
typical sorority activities, so if
they are, as Miss Telfer says, ar-
tificial, why try to hide it? The
girls who enjoy this sort of thing
will enjoy both the mixers and
the sorority system, while those
who don't will drop rush. In this
way the image of the sorority
system can be effectively per-
pet uated. Or maybe I'm missing
the whole point: perhaps the ob-
jective of rush is to get as many
girls as possible into sororities,
whether they'll like it or not.
KAY FARNELL says that the
rushees get an unfair impression
of her house, AOPi, because the
house has only 40 girls. How's
that again? Does reality have to
be unfair simply because it seems
unfavorable? What is her alterna-
tive suggestion: that each house
be allowed to have say 40 actives
at the rush mixers? But I guess
this fits in with the plan to have
the houses appear equal, even if
falsely.
Mi s Farnell doesn't like the
rushees to "hash" the sororities
after they leave because they
create "rumors" and "unfair ac-
cusations" about the houses. Could
it bE that such discussions might
bring to light unfavorable aspects
of a house not seen by all the
rushees? Heaven forbid. Also, from
what I know about sorority
"hash," the creation of rumors
and unfair accusations isn't re-
stricted to the rushees . . . Turn-
about's fair play.
Most foolish and ridiculous is
the whining the girls from AOPi,
ZTA and Phi Sigs are doing about
their houses. It can't possibly help
their future membership quotas;
if they'd take a more positive at-
titude toward their houses it would
probably help them more than
fifty new rush plans.
-Thomas Copi, '67
4
4
I
Time To Move Forward
NOW IT IS TIME to move ahead and
deal squarely with the problems fac-
ing this country.
President Johnson has received a huge
majority in both houses of Congress. He
is in a position to implement new and
imaginative programs, if he desires to do
so.
Helpful
DR. FRED C. SCHWARZ, president of
the Christian Anti-Communism Cru-
sade, had a remark at his press confer-
ence yesterday that may be of interest
to the more than 4000 people who packed
Hill Auditorium to hear George Lincoln
Rockwell last month.
Schwarz said he saw an interview on
Los Angeles television last week that fea-
tured Rockwell. One of the questions was,
"Where do you get your financial sup-
port?"
Rockwell replied, "The universities back
me," and then proceeded to rattle off a
list of universities whose speaking fees
are keeping the American Nazi Party
alive.
SURELY, there are problems crying out
for such approaches.
-Problems of equal rights and oppor-
tunities which the Negro revolution of
the past ten years has posed.
-Problems of large, perhaps perman-
ent unemployment, and its companion,
poverty.
-Problems of the farmer, who appears
to be engaged in a dying industry.
-Problems plaguing our urban areas,
including poor transportation, lack of
adequate housing and the deterioration
of the central city.
-Problems of education caused by a
huge influx of students with inadequate
teachers and physical facilities for them.
-Problems in foreign affairs: how to
assure that the world does not suffer the
terror of nuclear war while, at the same
time, retaining the freedom of our coun-
try.
BUT THE EFFECTIVE solution of these
problems calls for an innovating and
fresh approach, not hackneyed and half-
way measures such as the poverty bill,
which the President so proudly pushed
through Congress last summer.
It is the Democratic Party which must
be the innovating party in this country.
If President Johnson interprets his role of
leader of "all the people" to mean that
he must propose meaningless measures
with something for everybody in the
great new coalition which he has put to-
Ltother in hishnp nresildential triumnh.
At the Campus Theatre
"ESPITE Ingrid Bergman and
- Anthony Quinn in the star roles
Director Bernhard Wicki's produc-
tion of Friedrick Duerrenmatt's
"minor modern classic," "The
Visit," fails. It is a sad failure,
however, another instance of
Hollywood's desire to impress its
own mold onto an established
work of art.
Duerrenmatt's story is roughly
similar to Twain's "The Man Who
Corrupted Hadleyburg." Into pov-
erty-stricken Guellen comes Karla
Zachanassian, "the richest woman
in the world," returning to avenge
herself for being runout twenty
years before. At that time she'd
been disavowed and perjured by
her lover-Miller, now the local
merchant-and judged a prostitute
by the town. "The world made me
a .whore; now I will turn the
world into a brothel," she says. In
return for $2,000,000 she wants
Miller's life.
As it stands, the film is never-
theless interesting and at times
reaches a high level of satire and
slowly gripping horror. In this
respect Miss Bergman's acting of
Madame Zachanassian as incar-
nation of evil is superb. However,
because of this one-sided concen-
tration the film fails. Duerren-
matt emphasized: "This lady has
a sense of humor . . . a rare
grace, more, she has a wicked
charm ... She has to be rendered
as human as possible."
DIRECTOR WICKI'S concep-
tion of the play, however, seems to
be different from Duerenmats.
In one of his best scenes-the
night before Miller's trial-he does
show for a moment the intriguing
ambiguity of Madame Zachanas-
sian as Bergman and Quinn act
eousness. Quinn and Bergman be-
come powerful and equal personal-
ities involved in a heroic struggle
-Duerrenmatt, however, saw a
journey into pathos.
In a postscript to the play Duer-
renmatt wrote: "Nothing could
harm this comedy with a tragic
end more than a heavy serious-
ness." Sadly, this is exactly what
Wicki has done. It is a failure in
emphasis andnuance, true, but
that is the difference between
drama and melodrama. The per-
vading sense of horror in the film
is never balanced by a softer hu-
man understanding and seldom
by a sense of humor. Miller's
hoarse defense: "I am a human
being" comes anti-climactically
and falls flat; it is almost lost
admist all the sound and fury.
-Bob Zalisk
"'Aul ,.ally, He's Down
To A M~ere Stnadow"
..-1'f
k I
'BIRTH OF A NATION':
Griffith's Classic Is
Indigestible Experience
At the Cinema Guild
SEEING David Wark Griffith's"The Birth of a Nation" almost 50
years after its release is an indigestible experience. It is like trying
to remember that singular and absolutely satisfying, once-in-a-lifetime
meal eaten in some exotic restaurant in some long-ago time when
the days were long, more fun and meaningful. But only an ungracious
burp comes to mind. The film industry has so completely and master-
fully imbibed Griffith's cinematic techniques and, for that time,
daring innovations that we are satiated with a mimicking vocabulary
that has turned into stereotypes now more than a generation old.
Griffith alone conceived and developed practically every cinema-
tic device that we now take for granted. He had been making many
short films before he made "Birth of a Nation," the first feature-
length movie) in which he developed the close-up shot and the long
shot, with both of these innovations logically interplaced with the
common medium shot. He had developed the iris, the fade and the
dissolve. And, most important, he brought into a high state of
perfection the concept of editing a film to achieve a constantly flowing
series of images that tell an exciting and fluxing narrative. "I am
trying to make the viewer see," he once said.
HOWEVER, his genius did not fully reveal itself in his plot and
character. The characters have the musty qualities of the worst in
Victorian literature and the plot panders to an unsophisticated
. trs, 4 s. .1- 4f - _-.4n° " mr a .aif a
WE WERE ONE.
--R. RAPOPORT
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