Seventy-Third Year EDPTED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS "Where Opinions Are Free STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241 TIrth lWill Prevail" Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staf writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: DENISE WACKER Anatomy of a Regents Meeting Odious Amendments Replace NDEA Disclaimer Oath P RESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY signed into law Wednesday a resolution recently passed by the House of Representatives calling for the deletion of the controversial Communist dis- claimer oath from the National Defense Edu- cation Act., The disclaimer oath, which required appli- cants for aid to swear that they did not be- lieve in Communist causes, has been replaced by three amendments to the NDEA and the National Science Foundation Act.° The three new amendments are an effort to define more precisely who is morally qualified to receive aid from the government, but this attempt is hampered by the obscurity of the amendments and the confusion and controversy which will arise from them. I71E FIRST PROVISION makes it a crime for any member of .a Communist organization, as that term is defined in the Subversive Activi- ties Control Act of 1950 (also known as the Mc- Carran Act), to apply for NDEA aid or try to use it. The penalty is five years in jail or ,a $10,000 fine or both. The McCarran Act's definition of what con- stitutes a Communist organization and support, of same has been widely criticized as being too vague. ; It divides Communist organizations into ac- tion and front groups, both of which are de- fined as "substantially directed, dominated and controlled" by agents of the Communist con- spiracy. The act further states that "the giv- ing, lending or promising of support or money or any other thing of value for any purpose .tot any organization shall be conclusively presumed to constitute affiliation therewith .. ." From this obscure definition, the Subversive Activities Control Board must hand down its rulings. 'J7HE PROVISION does not mention other groups, such as the fascists and Nazis, who also try to undermine society. Transition 1 AN IMMENSE amount of effort went into the restructuring of the Office of Student Af- fairs. But unfortunately many of the new, To Work IN THE WORK of recovery, in the heat of war, in the rush of boom and throughout a decade of settling down, the common sense prescriptions of the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the economic ills of the nation have largely been relegated to happy memory. But there remain currently over four million unemployed, almost six per cent of the nation's work force, waiting to return to the payrole There are also countless slums and unkept areas marring the cities and rural lands; there are public works wanting, redevelopment and. many other projects. Why? These two problems are allowed to co-exist and yet might be used mutually to solve each other. ROOSEVELT and his intellectual entourage profoundly dug out the obvious solution. They simply put the unemployed to work. There is, of course, not the overwhelming necessity to find jobs today. The great depres- sion saw a quarter fof the working force idle. There is none of the demand to find jobs- no agonized cry that would shove politics to the side-to negate private and powerful con- cerns and twisted concepts of the public in- terest, that would drive Congress to willingly pass a useful program. Roosevelt's Congress was stunned by the great tragedy it had to solve. Half the worthy representatives did not know what legislation they were passing. Opposition was easy to melt away. But it is different when only five per cent have trouble eating-these do not make so much noise. The President could not expect to railroad through such legislation nowadays. HERE ARE, however, hopeful indications that the Kennedy administration may work to revive the old recovery program in this time of relative stability. While he was in town re- cently to promote his party, the latest Ken- nedy representative, recently appointed secre- tary of labor, W. Willard Wirtz, spoke of "un- precedented opportunities in this period of change and growth." The public works re- development program is what he had in mind. "When we start cleaning up there will be no manpower shortage in this country," he said. "There is no reason why we can't put every- body back to work." There is no reason why the total labor force shouldn't be back to work. Private industry cannot seem to handle this labor surplus. The government should be able to. A constructive and effective and reasonably efficient plan should not be difficult to draw up. The relative lack of urgency should eliminate the waste of the Roosevelt programs. The second new amendment requires that ap- plicants submit a list of all criminal convictions, including traffic violations carrying fines of more than $25, but excluding crimes committed before the age of sixteen. This means, presumably, that the govern- ment does not want to lend money to criminals, but the reasons for setting the age limit at 16 remains to be explained. The implications of the last provision are the most unsavory. It declares that "nothing contained in this act shall prohibit the com- missioner from refusing or revoking a fellow- ship award ... in whole or in part, in the case of any applicant or recipient if the commis- sioner is of the opinion that such award is not in the best interests of the United States." THIS GRANT of unlimited power is, perhaps, the most frightening aspect of all three amendments. Even after an applicant has ful- filled the first two provisions, his aid is still not fully guaranteed unless he works for what the commissioner considers to be "the best in- terests" of America. Certainly' the government has the right to deny those working for its overthrow special privileges that would help them realize their goal. The President and the House of Repre- sentatives are to be congratulated for revoking the Communist disclaimer oath, which, it might be mentioned, was ineffective anyway since a person who was a Communist and wanted to get NDEA aid would probably have no scruples about lying. However, the above amendments will solve nothing and will only cause further aggrava- tion. They will not satisfy the demands of the liberals, nor will they clear up thecontroversy which surrounds the 1DEA. -BARBARA PASH i0 Nowhere glossy names and positions fail to conceal the defects of the previous system which remain. The new structure was instituted to super- cede the need for a dean of men or a dean of women. The philosophy is that students can be treated as students and a sex segregation need. not be artificially imposed. But the con- dition was imposed that if either a man or woman needed special attention, this too could be gained from the new office.~ This is one of the most admirable state- ments to come from the Office of Student Affairs in a long time. It is too bad that in practice the theory is being distorted and twisted to fit into the old context of two deans; one for men and one for women. Special Assistant to the Vive-President for Student Affairs, Elizabeth Davenport justly ventured a hope that once the OSA got started she would not be saddled with trying to be a dean any longer. In fact, she has been put into this position more and more each day, not by her own doing but because of the structure itself. MRS. DAVENPORT is the only woman in the top hierarchy of the OSA. She was the previous acting dean of women. Therefore to her logically fall all of those special problems which women might have. But in the past five weeks it seems as if all of the problems re- garding women have fallen to her. And it is not without regret that students see her forced into her old role once more. Since there is no housing director, the job of coordinating housing this year has been taken over by the office in general. Mrs. Davenport figures importantly in the role of women's housing to the point of having to rule on specific placements personally. When one asks a question about housing for women the standard answer is "please see Mrs. Daven- port." All of this type of work does need to be handled by someone. And it is probably pre- ferable, for the time being, to have a woman who knows of the past procedures. This should insure transition without chaos. But why is everything subordinated to Mrs. Davenport? Two little-known women, Mrs. Coady and Miss Cody, are named in the personnel list of the OSA as assistants to the director of housing. Now perhaps these two are little more than secretaries; if so they have very fancy titles for secretaries these days. If they are not, then precisely what they do is" uncertain since Mrs. Davenport's actions intrude on almost all areas of women's housing as well as special counsel- ing for women. /RS. DAVENPORT is not to blame; she is after all the only woman in the structure who has any authority of note. The officials in the hierarchy seem unwilling to allow other, newer people to enter their own realm of authority. Consequently, Mrs. Davenport is entrusted with all of her old duties. And once *nra .tna..- n l .A v-nmtha -s af m,-f-, an By RONALD WILTON YOU COULD TELL from the be- ginning that Wednesday's was not going to be just another Re- gents meeting. Usually the meetings are com- posed of a series of "all those in favor say aye, those opposed nay, motion carries," type statements with time taken out for individual regents to sing the praises of some motion or to ask an intelligent question to show that they are awake. How come this amazing peace and unanimity?,The night before every public meeting the Regents get together in private and hash out their differences so that they present no discord to the public. But as one regent put it, "Tuesday night we went to see the Spanish dancers instead of meeting." * * * * THE RESULTS of this depar- ture from practice were signifi-, cant. The Regents could have put the University in a position of leadership throughout the nation on the question of outside speaker policy-and they did not. But they made their decision as individuals, with public debate, a large improvement over past prac- tice. And the stands that some of them took as individuals kept alive, the hope that one day they may realize their leadership po- tential in this area. Admittedly it is a tricky area. The present controversy started with the formation of Prof. Es- tep's committee to recommend changes in old bylaw 8.11 which featuredsa lecture committee that ruled, as one of its more un- appetizing aspects, on the de- sirability of individual speakers. THE COMMITTEE submitted its report to University President Harlan Hatcher in January and resubmitted it after acting on certain changes recommended by the administration. The Regents first formally con-, sidered the report, which took the form of recommending a new by- law replacing the old one, at their last meeting. They voted to adopt the report as a statement of policy but decided to hold off on making it a bylaw until the Michigan Coordinating Council for Public Higher Education sub-committee on speaker policy made its report regarding a common policy for all state colleges and universities. The Regents were not supposed to take any action on the policy because Regent Eugene B. Power, Who represented the board on the coordinating committee, said its statement would be coming out on November 15. * * * THUS JUST ABOUT everybody from Daily reporters to the Re- gents to Cleland B. Wylie of In- formation Services, who gives out advance information on Regent meetings, dropped their jaws when Regent Allen B. Sorenson of Mid- land interrupted the first order of business, which was a motion to adopt the minutes from the last meeting (and which is about as automatic a process as most ma- chines), to complain that a state- ment of his-which contrasted with the praise the other mem- bers of the board had heaped on the new speaker policy-had not been included in the minutes. So the board talked about en- rollment and housing and scholar- ships and then they came to speaker policy. And everybody put his gloves on. * * * PRESIDENT HATCHER started the ball rolling by reading a letter received from the Faculty Senate Advisory Committee supporting IRENE B. MURPHY .. . no surrender establish the committee by in- stituting a new bylaw passed un- animously. Regent Thurber had said that "it would be a positive step to adopt the first part of the propos- ed bylaw and let the balance go until more deliberation both among the Regents and among the' coordinating council has taken place." * * * HOWEVER Regent Eugene Pow- er thought it would be a wise idea to pass the second 'half of the substitute, which deals with student organizations sponsoring public meetings with outside speakers, as a replacement for the old 8.11 bylaw and its lecture committee. It contains four provisions for student organizations to follow when inviting speakers. Two of these, the first and the fourth caused all the trouble. The first states that the speaker may not advocate that his au- dience take action prohibited by national, state or University regu- lations. It also prohibits advocating the modification of the national or state government by violence or sabotage. The responsibility for informing the speaker of these prohibitions rests with the spon- soring student organization. * * * AND NOW the serious battle was on. Regent Irene Murphy of Birmingham pointed out that the first provision, with its restrictions on the speakers was not included in the original Estep motion, that the committee had approved it at the recommendation of the ad- ministration, that Estep and cer- tain other committee members still regarded it as unnecesary and that furthermore she would be happy to see it deleted. Regent Carl Brablec of Rose- ville who has ties with the Unitd the proposed substitution for bylaw 8.11. He also mentioned in passing a letter the Regents had received from 20 student leaders, which was generally criticalofathe sub- stitute as not being liberal enough. Regent Donald M. D. Thurber of Detroit who is representing the Regents on the Coordinating Council sub-committee then spoke up and recommended that the Regents pass the first part of the substitute as a new bylaw, without giving it a specific number. This part of the substitute calls for the creation of a Committee on Public Discussion whose basic job would be to set up a University lecture series. This has fine potential and if handled with imagination and vigor could be an important ad- dition to the educational process on the campus. The motion to Auto Workers then went on to make comments that demonstrate the concern for expediency which causes many people to accuse the labor movement of growing solid and fat in its old age. He called the policy "the best one possible at this time and a significant im- provement." He admitted :t was not as good as policies at some other schools, for instance as ''some schools in Oregon,'" but said that "it would serve our pur- poses." Backing up this position, R~egent Thurber then referred to-student opponents of the new proposal by saying that they tended to place on one or two phrases a tortured significance which did not occur to him at all. His attitude towards the new proposal was optimistic- the optimism of a person who makes the laws and rules on them as opposed to the pessimistic at- titude of the students-the pes- simism of people who are affected by the laws and may suffer through them. * * * BUT THEN Regent Sorenson said that it was rather poor, to say the least, to be talking about a free exchange of ideas and then follow it up with a paragraph warning you to be careful about your free exchange. Regent Mur- phy reiterated her belief that the two provisions should be deleted. And the image .of the Regents as people who let outside pressures override educational considerations suddenly had a few very velcome cracks in it. And Regent Murphy continued to put some more cracks in the image by pointing oft that pos- sibly one or two speakers in 15 years would have been excluded by th e new bylaw's provisions. "Ther is a little cloud of threat on the horizon and I don't :ike to see us surrendering anything to it unless there is a definite crisis. which now there is not." She pointed out that under the new provisions Governor Ross Bar- nett would not be able to speak on. campus about his stand because he advocates sabotage of federal laws. When she finished Regent Sorenson moved to delete pro- visions one and four. * * AT THIS POINT something must have diverted Regent Mur- phy's attention because the mo- tion died for lack of a second. Re- gent Paul Goebel of Grand Rapids then made a plea forcontinuation under the old bylaw in order to explore the substitute further and wait until the coordinating coun- cil met. At this point Regent Murphy suddenly turned her attention back to the table and talked in favor of Regent Sorenson's motion. When she was informed that it had died for lack of a second she retorted "that's what I'm doing now." Sorenson promptly reintroduced his motion causing Regent Power to comment that "this is as bad as Student Government Council." He was wrong; it was worse, be- cause after another round of dis- cussion the Regents found them- selves voting on a motion by Re- gent Power to adopt the whole second part of the substitute bylaw as the new 8.11, with Regent Sorenson's motion out in outer space somewhere and forgotten. SO A VOTE was taken on Re- gent Power's motion. Regents Power, Brablec and Thurber were for it and Regents Sorenson, Mur- phy and Goebel abstained which left a "no vote" situation since two Regents were absent and a majority of those present had not been attained. At this point the University still had its old 8.11 bylaw with its lecture committee and the new committee on public discussion. Here the Regents apparently thought they were giving up fight- ing for the day. They went on to pass the legislative appropriation request and renamed the men's swimming pool the Matt Mann pool in their inimitable unanimous style. S* * BUT THEN Regent Thurber an- nounced that he had a serious and grave announcement to make and you could feel the storm clouds gathering again. What he said in effect was that last month the Regents had adopted the proposed substitute to bylaw as a statement of policy, but the only position he could take back to the Co- ordinating Council -after Wednes- day's vote was the old bylaw with its lecture committee and pre- censorship. Regent Power immediately en- tered the lists on the side of Re- gent Thurber by reiterating the paradox and attributing the cause of the disagreement to "a couple of words in the bylaw which we don't. like." EUGENE B. POWER .'. a few words' But to lay such a big disagree- ment on ust "a cuple of words seemed slightly incongruous to many in the room including Re- gent Sorenson who simply but effectively pointed out that if it were only a question of a couple of words they could be deleted and all the Regents could unanimously agree on the rest of the motion. REGENT POWER, quickly see- ing that his line of attack would get nowhere, asked Regent .Soren- son if he would accept the sub- stitute until the first ,of the year and then re-examine it. Regent Murphy, jumping back into the fray, said that the board had created the Committee for Public Discussion and that the individual Regents had made their views known on the 'rest of the substi- tute. She repeated her desire to have the original Estep report. At this time Regent Power must have lost patience completely with what was going on because he said something which he might not have said if he had reflected oh it. Turning to Regent Murphy with a particularly harassed look on his face he asked her, "Have you thought about the political situation in the state." The real devil was out of its bottle, with all the strength on its side that a political necessity can muster. * * * BUT IT DID not have enough strength to deter Regent Murphy. She met his blast head on by de- daring that she had been afraid that the political situation was behind his position and that "you are surrendering and bending with every wind which I do not want to do." It is not often that one feels like getting up on a table and leading the 175 piece Michigan Marching Band in three cheers for a Regent but this was defin- itely one of those times. At this point President Hatcher apparently decided that it was time for the administration to get its licks He said that the reason the whole question of revision of the old 8.11 bylaw had come up was that many people thought the lecture committee was a oad thing and that he agreed with this but could not help feeling that the present discussion had lost sight of the great advance in the dis- cussion of free ideas that had al- ready come 'about. * * * IT SEEMED that President Hatcher thought getting rid of the lecture committee should be a liberal enough step without go- ing any farther now, and the Re- gents and the administration should sit down and pat them- selves on their respective backs for several years before doing any more democratization. Regent Sorenson, obviously no in a self-congratulatory mood, re- plied that the substitute was an improvement but that it "doesn't go far enough in liberalizing our position." Regent Goebel then reiterated his plea for more time to consider the substitute but showedthat the whole argument had gone over the head of at least one Regent by saying that for the interim he saw "no practical reason why we can't operate under the old bylaw 8.11." * * * . WHILE President Hatcher had been speaking, Regent Power had left the room and come back in time to hear Regent Goebel. As Regent Goebel finished, footsteps were heard entering the room'and a new vote, affectionately known as "Sam" to his collegues and Regent William K. McInally to the outside world, marched into the room, upsetting the political' balance. Just where Regent McInally had been until 1:30 on the day of a Regents meeting that was sup- posed to end at 12:30 is a matter for idle speculation as is the co- incidence of Regent Power's re- entry into the room closely pre- ceding Regent McInally's ap- pearance. So Regent Power quickly called the question on his motion. After Regent McInally was informed of what he would be voting on and promised Regent Murphy that if it passed the new bylaw would come up forreconsideration in January. Regent Power then pro- ceded to walk away with the vic- tory laurals by a vote of five for, Regent Sorenson against and Re- gent Goebel abstaining. The meet- ing was then adjourned at 1:50 p.m. * * SO WHY was this meeting so significant? For one thing it show- ed the need for completely open unprepared Regents meetings. The discussion Wednesday was an im- portant contribution to the free interchange of ideas which never would have occurred.if theRe- gents had ironed out their dif- ferences in a prior secret meeting. It is not exactly ethical for the Regents to sing the praises of free discussions and then subvert it by holding secret meetings. It was important also because it .showedjust how far the leaders 'AIDA,' 'BUTTERFLY': Operas Fail on Screen I HAVE VOICED my doubts in these pages before as to the effective- ness of opera on film, and Messrs. Butterfield's combination of exotic extremes in the double bill, "Aida" and "Madame Butterfly" at the Campus Theater has done very little to make me change my mind. It would be difficult to find a kind work for the "Aida." Renata Tebaldi, the vocal half of the evening's performance, need hardly concern us, as her supreme voice comes through on the jumpy sound track as thin and strident, or worse, just loud. As for the rest, I doubt that Guiseppe Campora and Ebe Stignani would appear in anybody's dream cast.t The part we saw was even worse. In the first place, nobody looked as if they werefreally singing. Of course they weren't, but they could have tried a little. Fortissimo cad- ences launched from teeth set in tooth paste smiles and supported by chests that never qvaver are beyond comprehension, much less creditibility. Sophia Loren, for in- stance, who embodied Mme. Te- baldi's voice, was totally non-di- rectional. Far from being the "lithe bundle of frenzied passion" promised in the ads, she simply looked vapid and a little confused. , I j ?A 1.: . ~. k, Y i h *' i' t ," s, ' j p. . t. :x , , , ; 4r" 4, , . .., ' : t '. s r4 9tr S.', .tk :' 4 ' r Vd' 1 . ar ' f? ' t a .3H , ' . i, . t, . , j ._ .. ..... .r' ... ' .. . t. .. 1. 1' 1. . fir, r,?y . , i f- \ '' , a ' S i, 13 ' :i lfa . c f t in ^Ffi:.i :r . ' + -IN : .F 1 ^ .l'x. _ r. ' r , ,c; , '1 k" 4 . F OR THE REST, the tenor, since he didn't sing, needn't have looked like one. Nor did the Pha- rah need look, and act, like a Mason. Amneris would have done credit to the silent screen, Amon- astro could not have been fiercer, or less convincing. Of course it has the opera that suffered through it all. Situation followed situation, and set follow- ed set. Every scena got at least one new and spectular locale. "Aida's sololoquy in the. first act, for example, had no less than three. The Grand March and the bal- let were indescribable. Ditto for the Nile scene. And of course the tomb was huge. Starvation would have come weeks before suffoca- tion, but, nevertheless, Miss Loren quivered her lip' one Last time and closed her eyes in the angel of death as Amneris, somewhere above, cast passion flowers on the pavement. The audience was left as it all faded out, gasping one last bored invocation to mighty Phtha. "SHE MADAME Butterfly" I ) u i,1 , j $ }k" 1d h; t ' 'r:', C F' Y r ", " Q". 'e. E'. l