Seventy-Third Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS Om THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Where Opinions, Are FeSTUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MIcH., PHONE NO 2-3241 Truth will Prevail". Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID MARCUS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Faculty, Staff Urge USNSA Support Student Leadership: Vague, Unfulfilled T ODAY the student body, by exercise pf franchise, will elevate seven students to the position of "campus leader." What exactly is a student leader? Who or whom does he lead? How does the nature of the campus shape his role? Student leaders at the University have one focus: Student Government Council. At Coun- cil elected members from the student body meet with ex-officios, the heads of important campus organizations. One might think that the elected members should have more over-all stature, but this is is not the case. EX-OFFICIOS, since they both sit on SGC and preside over their respective large student groups, have greater stature on the campus. However, both the size and the poli- tics of the University prohibit the emergence of any one of them as a "Big Man on Campus." Instead, various spheres exist within which the ex-officios dominate: The Daily, the Michigan Union-fraternity-sorority orbit, the Michigan League, and independent students (Interquadrangle Council and Assembly Asso- rclation). Liberal students on campus receive little direction from any of the above. Voice Politi- cal Party;, a less structured group which is not represented per se on SGC, ostensibly speaks for these students. The conservative bloc's views are enunciated by the Union, Inter- fraternity Council and Panhellenic Association. OBVIOUSLY, the ex-officios have the great- est opportunity for control, for behind them lies the support of a large campus group. A leader .like the League president has the opportunity to influence student affairs both through the jurisdiction of her League position and her voting power on SGC. The power of the organization for the most part is relative to the organization itself, al- though a small measure of influence comes from the strength or weakness of the leader. For example, The Daily by its nature will, be an influential part of a student's experience, but its power varies with the type of leader- ship it gets from the editor. An analysis of the various organizations shows that the Union president is in a key position to exert influence. Robert Finke, for instance, is extremely active in the fight to withdraw from the United States National Student Association. By its nature the Union presidency is a power position because the Union can do more than most organizations. It has its own funds and is virtually independent of University control. LEAGUE PRESIDENT Margaret Skiles this year has unfortunately done nothing of substance in a positive leadership role. Her of- fice could allow much opportunity for express- ing women's opinion and formulating policy but she has not followed in the footsteps of Bea Nemlaha, last' year's president. Conse- quently, as a leader she now falls short of the goal. Interfraternity Council President John Mey- erholz plays a strong part in shaping the views of campus "Greeks." Witness his SGC memorandum, for example, and his influence on the decisions regarding the committee on membership. Panhellenic President Ann McMillan has exerted more leadership than her two prede- cessors. She has attempted to formulate a strong Panhel policy but has for the most part failed due to the problems of the national- local relationship. She must be considered a leader of her group for her opinions expressed on SGC, few and far between, seem to reflect the sorority opinion. THE POLICY making power of Interquad- rangle Council has never been realized this year under the so-called leadership of Robert' Geary. In all fields, he has been content to let the organization limp along on the strength of the bureaucracy underneath. Mary Beth Norton, Assembly Association president, has been far stronger in leading her own organization. She has attempted to re- vitalize a faltering group through constitu- tional, changes and restructuring. The Daily automatically wields power. The extent to which an editor is a student leader is shown in part by his actions on SGC. In the past Daily editors have been in the center of the liberal movement and the trend seems bound to continue. The leadership potential of the editor is en- hanced by his access to the editorial page. This power can be matched by none of the other ex-officios. On the other hand, he represents a small group of students and must rely on the responses gained indirectly fromn his staff to know the pulse of student opinion. The president of SGC is at the top of an organization much as the ex-officios are and thus speaks with much the same authority as they and wields as much power. WITH ONE or two exceptions elected SGC members are unrecognized as campus leaders. This stems partially from the color- less personalities now on Council; more im- portant, elected members have no widespread base of support. The liberal and conservative blocs further limit one-man leadership. As soon as an in- dividual joins the leadership elite he must commit himself totally to a particular point of view. In the case of ex-officios, not only they but their organizations as well are committed. It is futile to think in terms of over-all campus leadership; the campus is splintered into many factions, most of which are in- dependent power structures. Each structure has its own leadership. No single individual can transcend his group so that he can honestly claim to speak for the campus community. -ELLEN SILVERMAN -H. NEIL BERKSON To the Editor: IN THE PAST weeks we have witnessed an increasingly in- tense campaign on the merits of this University's remaining a member of the United States Na- tional Student Association Up to this time we have hesi- tated to make our beliefs known, The campaign ought to be con- ducted by students attempting to influence other students but the issues should not be construed narrowly as only "student con- cerns." We feel that our responsi- bility to the University and our nation requires that we make our conviction public. For 15 years the USNSA has functioned as the most important student voice in the United States and for American students abroad. The leadership that Michigan has given to the USNSA has been, to us, one of the proudest contribu- tions of this institution to the life of our nation. THAT LEADERSHIP has not gone in vain; USNSA continues to be an essential link between American students and their con- temporaries all over the world. Domestically, some of the most creative thinking about the prob- lems of higher education comes from this organization. It is our conviction that stu- dents on this campus will make an intelligent and mature judg- ment on the issue of affiliation with USNSA. Our concern with the University Community leads us to urge a vote supporting con- tinued affiliation with the United States National Student Associa- tion at this time so that the fund- amental issues can be looked at dispassionately and equitably as benefits students at the University of Michigan. -Prof. Robert C. Angell -Prof. James M. Davis -John Hale -Stanley Levy -Prof. Victor Miesel --Mark Noffsinger -Hanley Norment -_Prof. Marc Pilisuk -Prof. James H. Robertson -Allen R. Smith Criteria . . To the Editor: W'E HAVE NOTED with inter- est the approaching referen- dum on membership in the United States National Student Associa- tion on campus. As delegates to this past summer's National Stu- dent Congr.ess, we approached the Congress in the hope that USNSA would at last return to discussing the problems and potential of student government, the theore- tical basis of USNSA. We found instead, a highly charged partisan Congress, with students hastening to align themselves with one side or an6ther, and thereby neglecting to reason out issues for themselves because of the intense pressure to identify with either conservative or liberal forces. In this type of atmosphere, issues are not decided and problems are not resolved on their relative merit alone; even more unfortunately, students in- terested in student government (the very foundation of USNSA's existence), are lost in the partisan political shuffle. But membership in USNSA ought not to be a partisan ques- tion because any objective evalua- tion of the association will show clearly that the concept of stu- dent government has indeed van- ished from the sights of those who determine the course of USNSA. Student government must be the basis and primary concern of USNSA because it is the only concept of a national representa- tive association of students that can be defended rationally. Thomas Hayden, President of Stu- dents for a Democratic Society, quite an influential group within the high councils of USNSA, as- serts in "Common Sense" on Aug- ust 17, 1962, that the trend in USNSA "is towards the accept- ance of the idea that students should engage in social action both for its effects on society and on themselves." In this argument are the seeds of the concept of students as a separate and dis- tinct class, pitting themselves against other segments of Ameri- can society, and is this not clearly a Marxian concept? We believe that it most certainly is. Hayden goes on to assert that "the association, however, car- ries a built-in problem." That problem is that the "structural and constitutional base of USNSA is the student government, and ... it is not an institution which encourages sophisticated students." * *' * NOW IT SEEMS to us who have been active in student govern- ment for four years that the in- dividuals we have met in our ac- tivities are indeed capable and genuinely interested in improving the position and quality of stu- dent government, students, and education at their colleges and universities. If this is the kind of student who hinders USNSA, then clearly USNSA ought not to speak for the American student popula- tion. Tra~An v aacrt that the Asanria_ trolled by "professionals," of which, we submit, Hayden is one, then clearly continued member- ship in USNSA will only serve to help a few unrepresentative stu- dents ostensibly speak for several million American students such as yourselves and us. We sincerely believe that the above alone are criteria enough to withdraw from USNSA. But when added to the fact that the average student (you) on the average American college campus (the University) gets virtually nothing out of USNSA (what have you received in direct benefits from USNSA this past year?) for the significant amount of his stu- dent government's budget which goes to support and maintain membership in USNSA, then the answer to continued membership in USNSA becomes obvious: we urge students to vote to no longer force their student government to remain a member of an unrep- resentative association which is not longer a confederation of stu- dent governments discussing your problems, but a national union of in a declarative sentence that US- NSA "has done wonderful things ... for 15 years . . . due in part to the vociferousness . . . of col- lege editors . . . and to a some- times manipulative elite of USNSA professionals." Since Mr. Hayden has been ac- tive in NSA and has demonstrated ability as a newspaper reporter, I presumed he knew what he was talking about when he reported his observations about the leader- ship of USNSA. Had I quoted a speech by a former State Depart- ment official claiming the De-- partment is controlled by an elite, would his statement of fact be any less valid because in that speech he criticized that elite? Let him who runs read. --William Madden, Jr., '64L Representation .. . To the Editor: PAUL POTTER'S article con- cerning the United States Na- tional Student Association pro- vides more than ample evidence .4 "GoAhead-You Can Always Put It Back Later!" changes that they feel are needed. The legislative process at the Na- tional Student Congress is open to any delegate, and before Mr. Finke makes claims to the con- trary he ought to be able to docu- ment instances where people de- siring change were denied access to the legislative process. IN SEVERAL places Mr. Finke makes the charge that the Na- tional Student Congress is con- trolled and manipulated by "pro- fessionals." Yet Mr. Finke never makes clear what individuals or groups of individuals he is refer- ing to in his sweeping generaliza- tions. It is ridiculous to answer Mr. Finke's groundless charges un- til he makes it clear which group of people, if any, he is making charges against. He makes the point that the delegates that SGC sent-all of whom were SGC members-were not elected to SGC on the basis of their stands on issues that faced the National Student Congress. First, this is only partially true. A number of SGC candidates in past elections have discussed the problems and issues confronting USNSA with the eletorate during their campaigns. Secondly, if Mr. Finke is really concerned about this problem then why have Mr. Finke and his compatriots con- sistently opposed any attempt to institute direct election of USNSA delegates which would give the campus a chance to hear and "vote upon the issues that are con- fronting the National Student Congress. This is a question that needs answering. -Howard Abrams, '63 Legislators . .. To the Editor: IT SEEMS to me that the entire debate onethe question of the United States National Student Association referendum is almost beside the point. If the members of the Student Government Coun- cil are truly committed to the notion of student self -government, as they say they are every time election day rolls around, then they should have no fear of a ~ referendum. But we see they are trying to hedge the subject, and they have been aided and abetted in this effort by, I am sorry to see, The Daily. All of a sudden we see commit- tees, e.g. "Friends of USNSA" and, on the opposite side, "Better Off Out," being formed. The Daily, specifically Messrs. Oliniek and Potter, suddenly breaks out in a flurry of editorials and, one is tempted to say, promotionals tell- ing us how "USNSA Offers Ser- vices For University Students" or "USNSA Benefits Students of 'U', World." Huzzah! But where have all these edi- torials and paste-job indoctrina- tion projects been for the last fifteen years since the birth of USNSA? Why has there been no constant program of information to students in regard to the func- tions and services of the USNSA? We certainly contribute to the dues paid out, in addition to the other expenses, whether they amount to $1,458 (Mr. Olinick's figure) or $2,424 (the figures sup- plied by Tom Brown, the SGC treasurer) per school year. MR. OLINICK tells us: "Even if the average University student does not know anything about USNSA, this is no indication that the association is failing. Sure, everyone ought to know about USNSA, but he can only do so throughd SC. The Council has yet to discuss, as a whole, this year's congress." To the contrary, it is an indication that everyone concerned, and that includes SGC, NSA, and The Daily, has failed in this respect and is continuing to do so. "USNSA" stand for. Campus supporters of the or- ganization suddenly feel impelled- to justify the group. Yet, if it had been functioning properly since its irception, there would be no need for such a campaign; we would know what USNSA is and what it does, and could judge whether we should remain in it. But obviously the supporters of' the group are afraid that an "un- informed" student body will vote to pull out. Perhaps, but if this does happen, they should realize whose fault it is that the students are "uninformed." Lastly, we come to perhaps the more important query, as to why students know virtually nothing of USNSA. One need, I think, only look at the configuration of people who solicited signatures for the peition to place the issue on the ballot. They are what we might call the campus conservatives. Why are they particularly in- terested in this matter? Because, obviously, the USNSA congresses of the past few years have tended to pass motions antagonistic to them, e.g. on HUAC, speaker-ban policies, academic freedom, and the like. The USNSA has become polarized into a liberal-conserva- tive dichotomy, and as a result the congresses have become little more than battle-grounds for per- sonal political philosophies. - * * * sible any meaningful discussion between the two camps . . . Mem- bers sometimes vote against a proposal not so much because they disagree with it, but because they have a grudge against its sup- porters." What we need, in my personal opinion, are student legislators and student representatives dedi- cated not to fighting their own private political wars, but to be- ing real representatives of and legislators for, the students. Then, and only then, will students lose their sense of alienation from their groups and realize that SGC and USNSA are not private de- bating societies, as they are now, but true student groups. -Steven Hendel, '63 Proposal. To the Editor: T HE UNANIMOUS agreement of SGC to the contrary notwith- standing, the question, "Shall the University of Michigan remain a member of the United States Na- tional Student Association?", vio- lates common practice and logic in two basic ways. First, as the question was taken exactly from the petition submit- ted, it is not a result of a propo- sition and is therefore not, In a strict sense; proposed legislatin as Section Nine of the SOC Plan requires. But Council's submitting the question to the electorate im- plies that it is legislation, which Section Nine also states must be approved by the ,electorate before taking effect. The electorate can- not approve or reject the question per se; they can approve or reject only the proposition therein. How- ever, the question on remaining has nohproposition because it is not the result of one. Second, the question does not propose a change in the status quo and consequently creates a ser- ious problem. If there were a tie vote on the question, how' would we interpret the result? Accord- ing to one of the most funda- mental rules of parliamentary law, a majority in the affirmative is necessary; otherwise the decision is in the negative. A decision in the negative in the event of a tie will mean that one-half of the electorate-not a majority, as is fundamentally required-will be able to effect a change in the status quo; a decision in the af- firmative puts the effect of the result in an awkward position, that one-half in the affirmative is sufficient to effect some action. * * * FURTHERMORE, the purpose of the question demands that it propose a 'change in the status quo and therefore be put, "Shall the University of Michigan with- draw from the United States Na- tional S t u d e n t Association?" Those who want to remain in the USNSA would not propose a mo- tion to remain because: we will always remain in it until we de- cide to withdraw; to submit the question of remaining as a means of arriving at that decision would be senseless, for they would be unnecessarily jeopardizing t h e status quo, which they favor. Re- calling that it was those who are against continued membership in the USNSA who initiated the pe- tition, we recognize that their goal was to have the University with- draw, so that, in other words, the purpose of the petition was to take the first step in the withdrawal of the University. If the question on remaining must by its purpose and meaning be changed to a question of with- drawal,. as shown above, then there. is further grievance against the present form of the question. The question to remain suggests that the "burden of proof' rests on the "pro-USNSAites" and the "anti - USNSAites" h a v e even claimed that said burden does in fact rest_ on the former the "antis" supporting their claim by reasoning that since the question implies a result of a proposition to remain, which it is not, those for remaining must prove why the University should do so. The "antis" have ignored the fact that common sense and common prac- tice demand that they alone must prove why the University should withdraw from the USNSA. I AM therefore convinced that responsibility rests with Council to clarify the issue, that A is a question of withdrawing-not of remaining-and therefore that the burden of proof rests on those who advocate withdrawal - n o t on those who oppose it, and because I realize that it would be imprac- tical to insist on a petition which proposes that we withdraw and a subsequent question which asks, Shall we withdraw? Finally, with all respects to Council's judgments, I suggest that Council adopt a procedural requirement that all petitions hereinafter be worded in such a manner as to propose a change in the status quo and that Council submit the question either in its same form or in the form of a question, "Shall the University adopt the proposition that . . (some change be made in the Cr Stands for Status Quo WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT by Mayor Cecil 0. Creal that he is seeking a third, term, Ann Arbor appears doomed to another two years of storekeeper government. In the last three and a half years, Creal has run Ann Arbor much as an absentee manager runs a grocery store. He has provided an honest and reasonably efficient administration that has handled problems of concern to property owners well, but outside of this area, he has shown little vision and leadership. Creal and his eight Republican cohorts on the City Council seem disinclined to leader- ship. They prefer to react rather than act. In spite of this inclination, Creal's record is marked by a number of achievements. The city Is in the midst of revising and codifying the zoning laws. Pay scales of city employes .have been revised and made more equitable by a Chicago management firm at the request of the city. A new city hall and west side fire station are being built. With the acquisition of Huron River valley land from Detroit Edison available park land has been appreciably expanded. HOWEVER, outside the property and pro- perty-servicing areas, Creal hesitates, stalls or does nothing. His philosophy is admittably conservative-no change is desirable unless there is a dire, immediate need for change- and this limited vision is not preparing Ann Arbor for the future. The Creal-led Council refused to undertake Irony THE GALLUP POLL has done it again. Just prior to last week's elections the poll discovered that Republican voters show a clear nrafavna e n.inhna . r71hnriirNivn a a a manpower study to determine the city's employment needs and the means for meeting them until the county, in cooperation with the University and the Ann Arbor Board of Edu- cation, decided to start one. Then it squabbled about its share of the cost. Finally, it es- tablished its own temporary six-month man- power commission, four months after the. idea was first broached to Council. Creal's handling of the income tax pro- posal, aided by the oversight (ignoring the lack of charter provisions for the tax) by its sponsor, Democratic Councilman Lynn Eley, and by political astuteness, failed to help the city in the future. Eley proposed an income tax to shift the taxation burden from property to the more copious wages and salaries. He saw that the property tax has a limited return and that one day Ann Arbor will reach that limit. To prepare for that day and to make the tax more equitable, Eley proposed an income tax anda property tax reduction equivalent to the amount raised by the new levy. The council- man asked for an administrative study of the tax, but Creal had the tax shelved in the city attorney's office. PERHAPS the most serious charge that can be laid against the mayor is his blindness to discrimination. In the face of mountains of statistical data and reports from the Hu- man Relations Commission, the Washtenaw County Council of Churches and other agen- cies that discrimination in housing exists against Negroes, Creal continues to insist that "Ann Arbor is a broadminded town. Every- body here is a first class citizen." Despite Creal's reticence-typified by his repeated insistence that the voters elected him on a campaign of no fair housing legis- lation, and he intends to keep his word-a students oriented to partisan poli- tical and social action. We urge you to withdraw from USNSA. Vote NO! -Steven Stockmeyer, President, Student Government Council -Robert F. Finke, President, Michigan Union -Ann McMillan, President, Panhellenic Association -John P. Meyerholz, President, Interfraternity Council Debate,. . To the Editor: IN AN EDITORIAL yesterday Richard Kraut accused me of being dishonest and insincere in Sunday's debate on USNSA. He charged that I falsified the rea- sons why Harvard withdrew from the USNSA in 1958 and miscon- strued an article by Tom Hayden. Mr. Kraut did not attempt to give an account of just what my arguments were. Rather he was content with presenting only a rebuttal to my arguments. It seems to me that an element of an "honest and sincere" editorial is an account of the other person's initial position. Allow me to cor- rect the record. What I maintained was that Harvard withdrew because of ob- jections similar to those of BOO. If4 Mr. Kraut had bothered to read a 20 page document pre- pared by a majority of Harvard's Student Council, a document writ- ten principally by Eugene Zagat, not Marc Leland, he would have discovered the similarity of our objectives to USNSA. At the very next USNSA Congress, Mr. Zagat, as an observer from Harvard, wrote a resolution which called for a year long campus debate on one or two selected issues before the NSA would take a stand on them. This resolution was passed. Mr. Zagat returned to Harvard, wrote another report, citing this resolution as a step in the right direction, and urged Harvard to rejoin USNSA. I am not so naive as to deny that typical campus "politics" did not take place at Harvard, just as it is now taking place here by both sides on the USNSA ques- tion. But the fact of the matter is that the reasons for Harvard's withdrawal were clearly stated, a reform resolution was passed, and the very person who authored the report urging Harvard to get out also authored the report a year later urging Harvard to rejoin. * * * that it is beneficial for this uni- versity to continue its member- ship in that organization. Due to our present system of selecting delegates to NSA, however, our students are not being represent- ed democratically, nor are they deriving all the advantages they might expect to receive from this affiliation. At present, a delegate must either be a member of an SGC standing committee or sit on SGC itself. This means that many dele- gates have not been popularly electedtoany position on campus, and so cannot be said to represent general student opinion in any way. The others, who have been elected to positions on SGC, have generally campaigned on their views on local issues, so that they, too, do not represent student opin- ion on international issues. ix- thermore, these people, having manifold duties in connection with their council and committee posts, do not have adequate time to devote to USNSA. This shows up, as Mr. Potter has pointed out, in the inability of the University to use the resources USNSA has offered to it. It is therefore imperative that dele- gates to USNSA be popularly elected. On a campus of this size, that is the only way for con- stituents and representatives to have any rapport. Let delegates campaign on their stands on na- tional and international issues. Let's get those delegates on a ballot! -Suzanne Levison, '64 Reform.,.. To the Editor: IN ROBERT FINKE'S article, he advanced a number of argu- ments against Michigan's continu- ed affiliation with the United States Nationale Student Associa- tion that should not be allowed to go unchallenged. Perhaps Mr. Finke's most basic argument is that internal reform such as he claims is necessary is not possible because the channels of access to the National Student Congress have been blocked off, i.e., the legislative mechanism of the National Student Congress has been closed off to those who de- sire change in USNSA. This claim is patently false. Any delegate to the National Student Congress may propose resolutions, basic policy declarations, constitutional amendments nranv nther form