Seventy-Fifth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
.. Each Time I Chanced To See Franklin D.
President's Convocation: 1000 Empty Seats
by U. Neil Berkson
:: :... :s? !
Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD $T., 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.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1964 NIGHT EDITOR: JOHN BRYANT
The Residential College:
Why It Is Going To Fail
ACISALLY, nobody cares. At all. So
one must ask who should care, and
why should they, and why don't they?
Start with the current undergraduates,
presumably. similar to those who will be
occupying the college a few years hence.
When the University herds students
through standard courses hundreds at
a time; when it expects them to accept
all manner of poor to terrible living con-
ditions on and off campus at high prices
without a whimper; when most so-called
recitation classes number 30 and up-
wards; when professor-underclassmen
contact is cut to a lecturer-listener re-
lationship because of too few professors,
too many other interests for them and
too many students; how can anyone-
from President Harlan Hatcher to As-
sociate Dean of the literary college Bur-
ton Thuma on down to Daily editorial
writers, expect the students, suddenly
and without prior notice, to start com-
municating?
NO COLLEGE STUDENT could possibly
get through one or more semesters of
University life without forming some
ideas on how the University environ-
ment could be made more stimulating,
rational, exciting, important, educational
or what-have-yo. But how is Thuma,
godfather apparent of the residential
college, to tap this stream of discontent?
He can't-and that's one reason why
the residence college will fail. At this
University the undergraduate takes
what's given him on an academic silver
platter. Reared in proper middle class
tradition he is conditioned to keep his
peace except on Saturday nights and to
do as he is told.
PERHAPS some universities make good
what they say about personal in-
terest in students, in undergraduate de-
velopment. This one doesn't. Many here
have tried-the residential college is an
example-but the money and the high-
level attention have all been elsewhere-
graduate education, research, fancy cen-
ters and institutes, top-quality faculty
(that want and are allowed to spend
less and less time with undergraduates,
especially underclassmen).
Given these emphases, the undergrad-
uate education that has developed is
not and will not produce students either
interested in or able to communicate
their thoughts on what a residential col-
lege might do to improve their education
and their total undergraduate experience.
It can be argued that there is no
reason why those designing the resi-
dential college should be hearing from
undergraduates. However, the reason-
to-be for the new college, its very defini-
tion, is based on the need for new ap-
Good Idea
THE BEST post-election comment award
goes to Republican Sen.-elect George
Murphy of California.
Asked by a reporter Wednesday night
what his immediate plans were, Murphy
replied:
"Nothing definite. I'll probably take a
few days off and think for a change."
-R. RAPOPORT
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.
proaches to undergraduate education.
It's quit impossible, and Thuma has rec-
ognized this, to design such approaches
without some sort of student consulta-
tion on what's wrong and how it can be
corrected.
THE SECOND GROUP that has been
called on to communicate (it hasn't
and won't) is the faculty. Faculty indif-
ference is both a reason why the residen-
tial college will fail and a symptom of
another critical problem the college will
not be able to overcome.
If the faculty doesn't participate in
the communication necessary to set up
a viable residential college plan the re-
sult will be deficiencies in the plan that
is ultimately implemented. Further, when
the residential college does get under
way, the faculty will be no more in-
terested in participating than they are
now-and Utopia will end up facultyless
THE REASONS for the disinterest are
more straightforward than the causes
of the students' silence.
Given the concept that it is the fac-
ulty that really make a university what
it is, it follows that their interests and
biases are generally reflected in the
trends and emphases discernable with
respect to the university as a whole. Such
trends and emphases are not hard to
find at this institution.
First, the highest quality of graduate
education and training must be provided.
It is the level of quality in this respect
that determines a university's stature in
world-wide academic circles. And this
trend does not relate to undergraduate
education at the residential college.
NEITHER DOES the University's em-
phasis on research, an emphasis that
has become increasingly stronger since
World War II. Postwar financial support
and faculty desire got the ball rolling.
Research volume in turn created facility
and administrative needs. The University
responded with aid and encouragement.
Research meant less time for undergrad-
uate teaching. This demand was met. It
meant money needs. This too was forth-
coming.
To attract new faculty, facilities 'and
research time had to be offered along
with increasingly /higher salaries. They
were. The cycle continues, and the prob-
lems and prospects of undergraduate
education lies entirely outside the sys-
tem as it now functions.
Undergraduate education has been re-
duced to a process of administratively ac-
commodating rapidly rising enrollments
with as much "quality" as can be mus-
tered. That it is administrative circles
that must design the University response
to the baby boom while faculty play
games with millions of dollars worth of
research is perfectly indicative of the
present state of faculty interest in under-
graduates, particularly the underclass-
men which are causing the worst pres-
sures and problems.
NEED THE POINT be belabored further?
The residential college doesn't have a
chance-at this University. Somewhere
else maybe, but not here, now. It's too
bad, of course. It will be one more ex-
ample of a chance at educational and
institutional excellence that has slipped
away.
-ROBERT JOHNSTON
THE UNIVERSITY faced its Frankenstein Wednesday
night.
One thousand empty seats in Rackham Lecture Hall.
Reserved for that many students. Who never showed up.
There was President Hatcher, delivering what may
go down as the best speech in his entire tenure here.
It was superb in every way. "If we didn't believe in
you and have boundless faith in you and your future, we
would not be here," he began. And he proceeded to draw
a thorough picture of the University, its problems and
its prospects, its simple philosophy and its complex
manifestations, its role in society and its responsibiilties
to the individual.
Only 150 students were there to listen.
BLAME THE student committee? Perhaps. My
personnel director thinks she could produce 1000 stu-
dents for anything, anytime, anywhere. The failure
of this first convocation to draw attendance (and it
certainly wasn't a failure in any other way), however,
can be traced to basic characteristics of the University
and its student body as both exist today.
The size of the institution creates conditions for a
sterilizing anonymity and a corresponding apathy which
covers the campus like a shroud. With rare exceptions
in a student body approaching 30,000, the individual
does not feel affected by the dynamics of the University.
More often than not, both problems and events belong
to Other People. Individual focus is turning increasingly
inward; when the student leaves the University he will
be equally unable to relate to the society around him.
IF SIZE produces internalization, it also provides
the right atmosphere for specialization. Specialization;
in turn, reinforces the tendency to turn inward.
"The University," according to President Hatcher,
"is the best place a youth is likely to find for the dis-
covery of his individual interests, for perceiving new
values and new vistas of meaning and personal satis-
factions, a clearer understanding of what is right and
what is wrong with the world about him, where it might
be changed and at what speed and cost." '
Elsewhere he added that the student "has a chance
to recognize the ongoing forces of our world, how they
take on new forms and new directions, to learn how
we preserve the good in the old while creating the new,
and how to minimize crises, eruptions and neurotic
tensions through natural growth and creative evolution.
He may construct a new and valid pattern and style
of life for himself.
The demands of specialization, -however, present a
superficial cover, aiding the student to avoid concep-
tualizing on a broad base about the "ongoing forces
of our world."
THE FIGURES released by Educational Testing
Service a week ago are haunting: 50 per cent of college
students come for "social" reasons; another 26 per cent
for "vocational" reasons. No wonder the University's
atmosphere is heavy.
"The easiest way (to live) is to live listlessly on a
dead level of monotony, or to drift with the accepted
and the expected into quiet desperation. The next
{ easiest is to consume your energies in the fire of
undirected revolt and rebellion or to starve them in
cynicism and unbelief. The most difficult and most re-
warding is to combine knowledge and understanding of
the technical requirements of change with those golden
moments, of clear vision and faith in what it is possible
for man to be and become."
These words were spoken last week. One hundred
fifty people heard them.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Panhel Official Discusses New Sorority Rush Plan
To the Editor:'
I AM grateful for Thomas Copi's
letter on the Panhellenic rush
proposal which appeared in the
November 6 issue of The Daily.
Mr. Copi has unwittingly
stumbled on the rationale behind
the new rush proposal as well as
pointed to some of the inaccurate
impressions created by the article
reporting it. Mr. Copi has not
missed the whole point, as he sug-
gested, but rather misunderstood
it.
My statement was not intended
to convey Panhel's desire that all
houses appear equal but rather
that all sororities be judged on
an equal basis. Mixers were not
accomplishing this. The woman
who enters rush with preconceived
ideas of "good" and "bad"' houses
may not make the qualitative de-
cisions necessary during rush with
an open mind. When she pledges,
she should not be pledging a
name or a reputation but rather
committing herself to a concern
for the individuals in that chap-
ter and their activities and inter-
ests as a group. If she does pledge
only for the social prestige of a
sorority she probably will be dis-
appointed by the, demands made
on her time and effort by the
chapter or may not be an effec-
tive contributing member of her
chapter. These are the things
which Panhellenic feels should
be considered during rush because
they are applicable to all sorori-
ties and have little to do with the
unequal local prestige status of
specific sororities.
FOLK ENTERTAINMENT:
Two Features, Two Winners
THE GOLDEN Vanity this week
has a double-feature show,
both features being Ann Arbor
products: the Huron River Ram-
blers and Jim Wesley.
The Ramblers' music generally
falls into three, perhaps four,
categories: uptime (fast!) in-
strumentals, slower h u m o r o u s
and 'Gospel' songs, and one or
two Western ballads. The instru-
mentals, like "Golden Slippers,"
are fiery and jubilant (except for
the slightly dragging, droning
fiddle), but a little wild and
ragged on timing. "Salene Creek"
proves much better; clarity and
precision emerge strongly on the
mandolin and banjo playing,
though a little less on the uitar.
The humbrous and G o s p e 1
songs (Sometimes they are peri-
lously close; it took the audience
a few choruses of "Life is Like
an Elevator" to realize that its
collective leg was being pulled.)
are generally slower, and sung in
high-pitched, nasal, close-
harmony (close, literally, as the
four cluster around the single
microphone). But their best song
by far is the Southwestern Jimmie
Rodgers ballad, "Waiting for a
Train;" the true pathos of the
song gains power from the quiet,
sad tone and resigned understate-
ment - in contrast to the usual
Country sentimental style that at-
tempts to pull out all the stops.
JIM WESLEY is probably the
best single folksinger in Ann Ar-
bor - blessed with a gorgeous,
deep, baritone voice and a spec-
tacular skill on guitar and har-
monica that nicely balance each
other in sound, but when let loose,
tend to overpower the songs. Most
singers have to exert themselves
to "sing out," but Wesley has to
make an effort to hold himself
in; he uses so much energy in
singing that he may often tire
himself out, whereupon his con-
trol slips and lets his voice boom
out regardless of what the song
calls for.
This happens on "Good Morn-
in' Blues" and "Fennario" (Bob
Dylan version); the audience be-
comes more impressed with the
marvelous sound of Wesley's voice,
guitar and harmonica tha.1 with
what's actually being said. But
only the serious folk music stu-
dents, and not many of them,
would recognize this as a fault;
even his mistakes sound good!
Usually, however, Wesley keeps
the reins tight and channels his
vocal and instrumental power into
the mood of the song, supporting
and bringing out the images of the
text. "Pat Works on the Railway"
and "Hey, Nelly, Nelly," for in-
stance, show tremendous power
and drive, but in the spectrum of
very sensitively-handledevariety.
* * *
AN INDICATION ofthe grow-
ing maturity of Wesley's style is
his ability to find, or rediscover,
new and unexpected facets in
songs: "I Ain't Gonna Be Treated
This-a-Way" reveals spirited and
impatient defiance; "R e u b e n
James" becomes less a lament for
dead sailors than a vigorous war-
ballad. But his best is "I Shall
Be Free;" with amazingly expres-
sive harmonica, guitar slamming
like a drive-wheel, voice tearing
out cheerfully wild on Dylan's
wry humor, he's obviously having
a grand time singing this one.
If not all the listeners keep up
with him, it's their own fault;
most have heard this kind of
colorful, passionate intensity only
in gloomy Protest Songs, ~ and
can't quite understand it in this
context of joyful exhuberance.
It's their loss; for when Jim
Wesley "gets into" a song, the
best word for him is Magnificent.
-Leslie Fish
MR. COPI draws a connection
between the artificiality of mixers
and what he supposes to be the
artificiality of sororities. His im-
pressions are similar to those of
a woman going through rush un-
der the present structure. She too
sees rush as artificial and there-
fore believes the sorority system
to be artificial. Many of the girls
who drop rush because they think
mixers are a typical sorority ac-
tivity are the girls who could
contribute most to a sorority;
they don't find what they are
looking for in mixers because mix-
ers don't present an accurate pic-
ture of what sorority living is like.
However, Panhellenic realizes that
the value of a sorority is not an
artificial or superficial experience
and is therefore trying to change
the structure of mixers to elim-
inate the false impression of the
system.
The problem of the small,
houses, as explained by Kay Far-
nell, is that rushees entering a
house which has a small rushing
force are often deterred from con-
sidering that house simply because
it has fewer members. Rushees
often equate quantitative strength
with qualitative strength although
a small sorority has as much to
offer a girl as a large sorority.
Rushees who have this mistaken
impression are more conscious of
the size of a small house than
they are of the quality of the girls
they are meeting there. The flexi-
biilty of the new rush plan will
enable smaller houses to rush
more effectively and handle more
rushees with less strain on their
members.
WE WOULD like rushees to
0UR MUDDLED RESPONSE to
the present challenge in South-
east Asia has made guerrilla war-
fare the Communist's forte. Mao
Tse-Tung's book, "Guerrilla War-
Fare," has become the military
bible for Communist puppets the
world over.
The reaction of the McNamara
regime has been incredible. Dis-
carding our advanced military
technology, the "whiz kids" have
made counter-insurgency the focal
point of our military activity, and,
the chief export item of our mili-
tary aid.
It is like arguing that the best
way to protect yourself from a
savage is to throw away your
pistol and pick up a club-be-
cause that's what he uses. Yet, as
insane as it sounds, that is what
we are now doing.
-American Opinion
consider small houses as well as
large houses, for both offer com-
parable opportunities to the indi-
vidual as part of a group.
Despite the fact that Mr. Copi
has not experienced sorority rush,
he seems to grasp the problem
Panhellenic has been facing. It
is in, answer to this problem that
we have proposed the' unstruc-
tured rush plan.
-Bari Telfer, '65
Executive Vice-President
Panhellenic Association
Muddled
Response
4
The
Week
in Review
elections and Their Effects on the U'
By JOHN KENNY
Assistant Managing Editor
And LOUISE LIND
Assistant Editorial Director
WHILE THE national presiden-
tial election unquestionably
dominated the news this week,
the outcome of several state and
local elections may have even
more immediate and far-reaching
effects on the University com-
munity.
Sweeping Democratic victorgies
in the state legislative and State
Board of Education races may
mean more money for Michigan's
tax-supported universities. Demo-
crats won two-to-one majorities
in both state houses, and cap-
tured all the seats on the eight-
man bzoard. They also dominat-
ed the governing boards of Mich-
igan State and Wayne State Uni-
versities.
.t.. '(Of) WH'{L~VOUA~KH6
Two newly-elected members of
the State Board of Education
predicted a Democratic press for
a }big increase in university ap-
propriations:
Democrat Thomas Brennan of
Grosse Pointe, elected to a two-
year term on the board, said, "I
feel the Democratic Party has
a traditional record of being more
liberal toward education. I would
certainly expect that increased
appropriations for e d u c a t i o n
would have an easier time being
considered."
Dr. Peter Oppenwall, a Grand
Rapids Democrat elected to the
board, said he thinks education
has a good chance for a sizeable
increase, although "it is very dif-
ficult to predict exactly what the
future of appropriations for edu-
cation will be."
*~ * *
HOWEVER, Sen. William Ro-
mano (D-Warren) and Rep. Gil-
bert E. Bursley (R-Ann Arbor)
re-elected to the state Legislature,
were less optimistic about the fate
of higher education appropria-
tions.
The 10 state-supported colleges
and universities are requesting a
record $175 million appropriation
for next year. If the approach of
the Democratic Legislature is, in
fact, more liberal toward educa-
tion, the chances of receiving it
are greatly improved.
If not, perhaps the 10-member
Michigan Coordinating Council
for Public Higher Education,
heading a new cooperative state-
wide allocation effort for next
year, can elicit a more liberal re-
sponse from the Legislature when
it submits the budget request for
all ten insttiutions next fall.
* * *
IN LOCAL elections, Ann Arbor
voters approved a proposal to sub-
santially reduce the citv's edrv is-
University's performing .arts cen-
ter.
It is significant that Ann Ar-
bor has registered such a liberal
attitude toward these types of
faciilties, and has made it pos-
sible to extend them to an area
where they have been notably
lacking.
* * *
A .DIFFERENT kind of election
occurred on campus Thursday
night. University President Har-
lan Hatcher elected to increase
communicationbetween the ad-
ministration and students by
holding the first student convo-
cation since 1920.
Unfortunately, the mass of the
student body elected not to at-
tend. Only 150 students turned
out for the President's address in
Rackham Lecture Hall.
Seemingly undaunted by the
sparse attendance, President'
Hatcher delivered a brief speech
and answered student questions
transmitted by a roving micro-
phone system.
* * *
READING FROM a prepared
the President assured undergrad-
uates that they remain the core of
an institution seeking to stimulate
them through its diversity, not
frustrate them with its imper-
sonality.
Although the complex Univer-
sity has left undergraduates "be-
wildered, overwhelmed, frustrated
or uninformed as to what their
University is all about and where
they fit into such a complicated
organization of learning," the
President promised that the un-
dergraduate does "not belong to
the category of forgotten men. He
is not on 'borrowed time'."
The President also: called for
a "blue ribbon" committee of citi-
zens to study the University's re-
latinn with the cnmmunity in the
The idea behind the convoca-
tion-to increase administration-
student communication-was well
founded.
It is regrettable that so few
students, many of whom were re-
cently lamenting the lack of this
kind of communication, chose to
attend. It would be even more
regrettable, however, if plans for
future convocations of this nature
were cancelled on the basis of the
scanty turn-out Thursday.
THE CAMPUS Greek system
suffered several set-backs this
week when:
-The SGC Membership Com-
mittee announced that those de-
linquent fraternities which have
not filed membership statements
with the committee within ten
days would be referred, to the
Membership Tribunal for disci-
plinary action;
-Interfraternity Council an-
nounced plans to investigate the
reported fracas between Sigma
Alpha Mu and Sigma Chi;
--Panhellenic President's Coun-
cil decided to postpone voting on
a controversial system of unstruc-
tured mixers in spring rush.
* * *
CAMPUS Greeks have had their
share of trouble this semester, en-
compassing everything from the
death of Phi Mu to the unwar-
ranted intervention of the nation-
al Acacia organization in its local
chapter.
Perhaps Prof. Marvin Felheim
of the English department had
the right idea about social fra-
ternities when he addressed Alpha
Phi sorority early this week.
Everybody should have the
right to participate in the Greek
system, he said. Thus the mem-
bership policy of any fraternity
or sorority should be to move
people through the system as fast
as it ocn This wav .anv student
FEIFFER
1 ILI
t-49
+RwHe O MARRL( YOU?
t
K6CAV6 YU'VE: FtX WHAT IF
60TA R05EIN I HURT YOU?
'(OUR T6H. TP4
A FOOL FOR A
WOM'ANI'WHO C
CARRES A ROS
1 J IWR 'E'Tt fi1
09O$,1 youl4 'orJ
7'00 MUCH OFCOU)R.
for 7 8CHURr JUST
A- r'rtg OYA
WOI W 9 ,I
A RO6Iii
HER TECTfl-
WOW!
WHAT IFI WC'
UJWiAhFUt-L
LOX,- 6PUPU IT ~OACK-
HOT D16&fY! IA
'I'4 AV6 A W0- G
MAO WIJTH A A
fM5 IIJ 06R
O{~T IF 1 COM50ME1P
?DU MRW THII fRANGE&
WJP Ilt1ATBC,
MIND YOU.,
nrAT' A -r 2
&1-A DYS