Seventy-Third Year EDITED AND MANAGED 1Y STUDENTS OF THE UNVERSITY 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 Trutb Will Prevail" U U IACE Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. ThiS must be noted in all reprints. "Well, Invite Somebody! Send For That Albanian" LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Reporter Shows Bias In Report of SGC RIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID MARCUS If Meredith Flunks Out: What Happens Then? 'fr"; yN' ;emu' r.;A..- 1 h a .~ S y El2 I ,...,,.,.ti,,,. ;;:" < : ( 1 " cr 't M v ,c c THE NEWS that James Meredith is appar- ently flunking out of Ole Miss meets two reactions on the part of those who supported his admission into the University of Mississippi. students." Thi behavior seem IT IS a sada on our time Strange as it may sound there seems to in our countr be a feeling on the part of some that Meredith their sphere t " has somehow let them down by having the taking place o nerve to be failing his subjects. "We could have The profess at least picked an intelligent guy," someone of a sensitive remarked a few days ago. This attitude is ervation of fr obviously ridiculous and hopefully such com- parently this h ments are made mostly in jest. But there or things arec must be other things to make jokes about. Eventually p The other and most frequent response to a university w the news is a remark more or less to the between classe effect that "it really isn't fair" or an expressed might see som feeling of frustration that in addition to all forgotten feeli that he has already gone through, Meredith of their half should have to suffer this final indignity. instructors in ledge. TO ANYONE looking at the situation ration- ally it is clear that a person in Meredith's IN CONSIDE position would probably be failing. To expect fails to pas anyone of even the highest intelligence to work faces two pro well under cpnstant harrassment from fellow to remain de students, obscene remarks scrawled on the wall be open to c of his room, assassination attempts, and a who are again general atmosphere of hostility and hate is will be givenf unrealistic to say the least. the press abo A few weeks ago three graduate students forcing the u sat down at Meredith's table during dinner campus even and returned to their rooms to find the walls requirements t covered with the hastily written words "nigger rights will ha ,, will find itself lover." It will take extremely brave persons centngar to fight the hatred of the whole campus for centering ar the sake of befriending one lonely Negro, and definately wou It has already been fairly well demonstrated On the oth that the Ole Miss campus has no one fitting expel him, it this description. public opinion Thus Meredith lives an anxious and alien- Ole Miss wit ated life. Aside from the physical danger he segregationists has to think about everytime he steps onto of the stuati campus there is also the emotional stress of the opinion v being constantly accosted with Ugly, hate- fall, it hardly filled faces. To anyone posessing even the enough streng slightest degree of sensitivity this is fairly in defense off upsetting. To know that there is not one person on his side, or at least not one brave IN A SENSE, enough to declare himself, is also far from problem if1 comforting. It is true that pelled and it i been able to IF, THEREFORE, Meredith does fail his sub- But thos wh jects it is hardly fair to consider his position thinicose S f a normal one in the determination of whether thin ice. So f he should be asked to leave school. It would tive about Me be blatant hypocrisy for the administration it has been e subjective. Th suddenly to begin treating Meredith as a treating it in normal student who somehow just could not It seems i manage to make the required grade point. a respected s Meredith may not be meeting his respon- trolled just en sibilities as a student but it would be difficult civilized being to .say that the faculty of the University of supposes a ce Mississippi have met their responsibilities for the part of th the preservation of academic freedom in their case of the U strange and indifferent silence throughout the only conclusio tense days of Meredith's registration and the disgusting be] weeks following his admission. university offi Search as one may for any justification other attempt to re than the one headlining a Chicago Daily News posedly capab) Service story, "Ole Miss Faculty Would Rather The univer Eat Than Speak," it is hard to come up with these students any other plausible reason for their silence. nothing but n The Minnesota Chapter of the American As- right which is sociation of University Professors sent a letter justifiably be to the Mississippi faculty commending them he is exercisin "for the fine sense of responsibility they show- under which i ed in accepting James Meredith into their abnormalities classes and offering to him the same educa- in our time. tional opportunities as those offered to other Going Local s interpretation of the faculty's s questionable at best. and thought provoking comment s to realize that some professors y no longer consider it within o voice an opinion on atrocities in their own campus. r has generally evoked an image intellectual, devoted to the pres- eedom in all of its forms. Ap- ias either been the wrong picture changing rapidly and drastically. perhaps 'the faculty members of ill wear blinders as they walk es on the off chance that they iething which would arouse long ngs of guilt over the abnegation remembered responsibilities as the unhampered pursuit of know- RING what to do if Meredith s his courses the administration )lems. If it chooses to allow him spite his failing average it will harges of partiality from those st ,Meredith. The segregationists a golden opportunity to rage to it insidious government pressure niversity to keep Meredith on though he is unable to meet the the other students must.Human ve won temporarily but Ole Miss embroiled in another controversy und Meredith-a situation it LId like to avoid. er hand, if the university does will face a barrage of negative from integrationists, charging h deliberate collusion with the and a disregard of the realities on. Considering the strength of )iced against the university this seems that it could summon up th to once again rally its forces its declining integrity. then, there is no solution to the looked at completely objectively. a failing student should be ex- s also true that Meredith has not study under normal conditions. o argue for objectivity stand on r there has been nothing objec- edith's case. From the beginning motion-laden and almost totally ere is no reason to discontinue this manner. acredible that the students at tate university cannot be con- iough to make them behave like s. Attending a university pre- rtain degree of intelligence on e student. If this is true in the niversity of Mississippi, then the n that can be drawn from the havior of its students is that cials have not really made an ason with these students, sup- le of rationality. sity's concern should be with not with Meredith. He has done make an attempt to exercise a constitutionally his. He cannot judged on the manner in which g this right until the conditions t is offered to him are free from shameful in our country and -JEAN TENANDER F ... .- '. To the Editor: ALTHOUGH a college paper by definition is charitably under- stood to have a certain prerogative in slanting facts for the sake of a good controversial story, there comes a point where misrepre- sentation is dishonest and vicious. I feel such a point was reached in yesterday's lead story on the Committee on Membership in Stu- dent Organizations. There were two Daily reporters covering the meeting and editor Mike Olinick sat at the table as an ex-officio member of Council. That makes three Daily people present as witnesses. They are all bright and certainly grasped not only the actual facts of the meet- ing, but the tone of discussion. Yet they chose to report neither the facts nor the tone. It is apparent in much of Daily reporting that the writers are bel- ligerant, self-aggrandizing, and negative in their approach. This is certainly too bad, however it is not necessarily harmful. But when this negative approach de- liberately places the groups in- volved in an unfavorable light- undermining what small progress has been made just for the sake of a story-then they are violating their privileges as reporters. Yes- terday's story was such a viola- tion. * * * THE MEMORANDUM which was presented to the council for its approval was submitted so that the Committee on Membership could assess the Council's feelings on the committee's functions. It was not asking for endorsement of the specific proposals nor did it re- ceive this endorsement. The Stu- dent Government Council gave an overwhelming vote of confidence to the committee and its work of eliminating mechanical discrim- ination. However it stated expli- citly in the portion of the motion which the reporter chose to omit that, while it considered the pro- posed areas of investigation legiti- mate, it could not endorse the specific plans because it did not have appropriate information. Therefore the Council did not, as your headline stated, "set pro- grams for bias elimination in so- cial organizations." It merely pledged its renewed commitment and cooperation in the area of discrimination. The specific pro- grams can only be determined and approved by the committee itself. The committee in its statements to the council, also made it clear that the seven proposed steps were "possible areas of work" and certainly cannot all be undertaken simultaneously. The Daily, how- ever, listed the proposals as if they had been adopted by the commit- tee and as if the committee were prepared for immediate action. IT IS UNFORTUNATE that this story was printed, for once again it placed the Committee on Mem- bership in the position of a ter- rorizing group. It was the kind of article which destroys so much of the good faith the committee hopes to establish with affiliated people. Each time this faith is lost the committee suffers from a lack of cooperation and thus the progress in this area is slowed down for months and possibly years. Understandably it is a delicate area. The committee is dedicated to eliminating bias and thus by requesting information it often has to indict the group it is work- ing with-if discriminatory prac- tices are discovered. However this committee has always tried to be understanding in its dealings and fair in its demands. The proposals suggest areas in which the com- mittee hopes to work-areas It feels must be examined. How- ever these areas of proposed in- vestigation will not be undertaken without a great deal of prelim- inary ground work, allowing the committee and the groups involved adequate time to compile facts. There is no need for name call- ing. However I am sincerely sorry that the action of the committee and council were misconstrued, and I hope the damage done by the article does not impede pro- gress in this vital area. -Wallis Wilde, '64 Member, Comnmittee on Membership r7 . I i r. . r ' " I _ . _ ,. ::r.}. .ArY" ='y j . JAC4 A6 Z YEAR-ROUND OPERATION: Cautious Approach Necessary By DAVID MARCUS " IF," so folk-wisdom tells us, is the biggest little word in the English language. Certainly, it is upon this small but significant word that the ul- timate plans for full year opera- tion depend. It is difficult to ap- prove or disapprove of full-year operation because it is so nebulous at the moment. Implementation and the ultimate form which full- year operation takes depends on factors which are not yet deter- minable and which will not be known for a long time to come. A few things are known. First, the University is only committed to what Dean Stephen Spurr of the natural resources school calls two and a half-semester full-year operation. This simply means that the responsibility for handling the summer session has been shifted from the Summer Session Office to the individual deans. Now, the deans have a year-round respon- sibility for the course-offerings within their schools. * * *. SECOND, the University is com- mitted to building up the summer session, to making it more than a series of skeletal offerings. Hope- fully, this will transform the sum- mer session from an academic or- phan into a meaningful addition to the University. Third, the University is com- mitted to trying out a new calen- dar. The new schedule begins the fall semester in late August and places final exams just before Christmas. The second semester begins in January and ends in May. This leaves room for a full third semester in the summer al- though it does not by any means mean that there will be one. The question of the third semes- ter is one of the trickiest prob- lems that the University now faces. Whether there will ever be one and what it will be like depend on several as yet unanswerable ques- tions. 1) How many students would come to it? 2) What kind of students would attend? 3) Will the University get enough money .to do it? 4) Can the University recruit enough faculty members to make three semester operation feasible? 5) Can the individual depart- ments and colleges make the nec- essary adjustments without over- burdening their faculties? OBVIOUSLY, all these questions interrelate. The University can do nothing until it knows whether the Legislature will come through with enough money. In order to con- vince senior faculty members to teach during the summer or to stagger their teaching between the summer and one of the two other semesters, the University is going to have to offer to pay them at their regular pay rates during the summer. Three-semester operation thus means a large financial commit- ment on the part of the University. If the University were to plan on a semester to set-up. This is one, of the major questions which the individual schools and depart- ments will be considering in the next few years. For example, will students use the third semester as a means of finishing up more quickly? Or will they stagger their education and attend the University during the fall and summer or during the spring and summer? How can the University continue to serve the many special individuals, confer- ences and institutes which come during the summer to the Uni- versity? S* * * CLEARLY, there is a great deal of work facing both the faculty and the administration in an- swering these questions. Until they are answered, there can be no clear idea of what kind of courses and what kind of schedules will best suit an extended summer ses- sion. But however these questions are answered, their answers will surely provide as many new problems as solutions. For example, how will departments be able to stagger sequences so that students attend- ing in scattered semesters will have no problems in fulfilling their dis- tribution requirements? An instancer: at present English majors are required to take a two semester-long survey. Under the present calendar, the first half is offered in the fall, the second in the spring. What will the English department, in this particular case, do about the student who attends in the spring and the summer? Can the English department, or any other department, be required to offer all parts of all sequences in all semesters? What will happen to the junior- senior honors programs if students are allowed to stagger semesters? Certainly it is unfair to burden the departments with a complete course offering in every semester. Yet it is equally unfair to struc- ture programs so that students are forced to attend during certain semesters. * * * * ANOTHER DIFFICULTY is if the University is in full operation year-round, what will happen to the various summer institutes and seminars heldhere? Some of them will possibly have to be curtailed and the University will be forced into an evaluation of its summer institute program. But again, the question of summer institutes must remain in limbo until other related questions are settled. The question of faculty is also a crucial consideration. The Uni- versity has constantly assured the faculty that there will be no com- pulsion of individuals to teach during the third semester if there ever is one. This presumably means that faculty members will be encouraged to stagger their teaching and come during the summer if they so desire and that the University will have to seek a large number of new staff mem- bers. Of course, the University must get much more money to do this. University has taken a positive step toward the solution of these problems of full-year operation. Within the departmental or the college structure, the deans and faculty can survey their students and determine what kind of a program the school or department should ideally set up during the summer. Furthermore, the individual units hands of the various deans, the can come up with solutions uni- quely suited to their particular functions. For example, the educa- tion school during the summer serves many teachers who are tak- ing refresher courses or who are working on advanced degrees. This means that this -school will not be able to set up a summer session based solely on a trimester begin- ning in the middle or end of May. It also means that the education school will have to work closely with the literary college and other units in order to set up summer cognate courses for returning teachers. Each unit will be able to devise an operation suited to its own par-. ticular needs. The administration will act only in certain budgetary matters and in helping to resolve any conflicts that may result be- tween schools from varying calen- dars. But again, no matter how much planning any unit does, no mat- ter how much planning the Uni- versity Senate does, no matter how much planning the University does, there are always the un- predictable external limitations that must be taken into consid- eration. FOR ALL these reasons, the University has continued to move slowly toward full-year operation. The third semester is still no more than a possibility which the Uni- versity will consider carefully. The University, by moving step by step into a three semester calendar, will better be able to evaluate the effect and the direction of the next step. Although many faculty members and students are disconcerted by an apparent lack of direction in the full-year calendar transition, it is better that the University move slowly than jump into an ill- considered experiment. Ultimately, the faculty can take comfort from the fact that mem- bers themselves will have the ma- jor say in what the University does about the calendar. Ultimate- ly, students can take comfort in the prospect that the University is not forcing them into a situa- tion where their wishes will mean nothing. Student reaction will be carefully considered at every stage as a major factor in future plan- ning. If Student Government Council and other groups asserted themselves and asked to have a role in the planning, students could well play a dynamic instead of a passive part. FULL YEAR operation means a complete reorientation of the pres- ent way of life at the University. Nobody as yet knows in which DANGEROUS AFFAIR: Witty, Fine T7O YEARS late, but in time for Christmas anyhow, "Les Liasons Dangereuses" has finally managed to beat As path as far west as Ann Arbor. The facts and intentions surrounding the movie have, by this time, become a little comedy all of their own. In 1782 Pierre Ambroise Francois Choder- los de Laclos, published the novel "Les Liasons Dangereuses (Ou Lettres) ," cunningly disguished (you might guess) as a set of let- ters between the major charac- ters. To heighten the realism, Laclos wrote an "editor's" preface and in the highest irony offered the "let- ters" as a public service to in- struct new brides and young lov- ers in the terrible decadence into which the world had fallen. Be- fore this, Laclos put an alleged publisher's preface disclaiming re- sponsibility for the whole thing. As you might suspect, the novel was a great success. IN 1960, Roger Vadim, best known for introducing Brigette Bardot to Cinemascope, attempted to update the novel and film it. The French government refused for a year to send it to other countries on the grounds that it would certainly misrepresent the terrible decadence into which France had fallen. Finally it con- sented if Vadim would appear first in an editor's preface, speak- ing in English to all Americans, to explain that France, as a cul- ture, disclaimed responsibility for the whole thing. Now, after a year in New York, it's here. All that remains of the Letters is a scene or two where one is being written. Nothing remains of the irony; indeed, the movie ends on a distressing note of morality. But, in spite of himself, Vadim manages to film what he knows best: the kind of relationship which remains when all guilt, and other moral sanctions or prohi- bitions have been paralyzed or swept away. Valmont (Gerard Philippe) and Juliette (Jeanne Moreau) have based their mar- riage oh a terrifying pact which requires each to make and break lovers as love-offerings for the other. In addition, each is free to pursue whatever ends he chooses. BY THE time the movie is done, it has gone through a dizzying series of interlocking triangles and bedroom scenes, driven one sore looser mad, killed the "hero," and maimed by fire his proud wife. Vadim spends a lot of time show- ing his wife, Annette, nude. For- tunately she is very pretty. Background music, a stroke of luck, is mostly Thelonious Monk and Charlie Rouse. The terrible cutting makes the aural effect something 1ik e standing outside in line and hear- ing music when the door opens to let someone out, but frequently whole choruses are left in tact, which makes it worth while, es- pecially for a movie. The dialogue, if you are sym- pathetic to the spirit of the movie, is witty and fine, assisted incom- parably by a most natural and delicate translation. The late Gerard Philippe, so highly wor- shipped, finds his part a bit be- low his powers, but nonetheless slays 'em all with his usual elan. There are several, almost great effects, which are better than the situation calls for: the screen goes white during a long kiss, a tele- graph operator repeats, emotion- lessly, the .message which will ruin a life, and so forth. In short, "Les Liasons Danger- euses" is well worth the ninety cents unless you're over fifty, in which case it's just barely worth the ninety cents. -Dick Pollinger THERE ARE some interesting and hopeful inferences to draw from the recent decision of Standford University chapter of Sigma Nu to disaffiliate from the national organiza- tion. It is encouraging to see a group of men, un- der no pressure except that of their own con- sciences, decide to divorce themselves from an organization based on racial discrimina- tion. The new local fraternity, now Beta Chi. is the largest house on the Stanford campus, and it must be hoped that this example will spread to other fraternities faced with sim- ilarly enforced, institutionalized racial pre- judice. To those who believe that all fraternity men are unconditional bigots, let Beta Chi stand as a counter example. MORE IMPORTANTLY, Beta Chi must be seen as indication that a local fraternity cannot "justify" its discrimination on the basis of a national policy. If a local fraternity is honestly interested in being a nondiscriminatory house, and if it is faced with a national policy of discrimina- tion, that house should disaffiliate. Beta Chi is not the first house to go local. Two years ago, ATO expelled its Stanford chapter for pledging four Jew'ish men. That A~. ra..d. local still exists and is strong and respected, according to Tom Grey, president of Beta Chi. But a university and its student body ought not to wait passively for the spirit to move a discriminatory fraternity to end its ties with bias. It must be the university's policy not to allow any unit within the university to discriminate on racial or religious basis. The university. and its student body, must press vigorously for an end to all racial inequality within its confines. Not to do so is to lend tacit support to the inequality. T HE BURDEN of complying with the anti- bias stipulation must rest with the in- dividual fraternity. The chapter must bear the responsibility and the consequences of failure to comply. And the university should make the consequence expulsion.' But if the university is honestly interested in a non-discriminatory fraternity system, it must offer the fraternity whatever assistance possible in overcoming the problems of going local. A major problem in disaffiliation is financial. A local chapter, faced with a deficit, has no resource of "tide-over" funds to support itself and must dissolve. The university should con- sider possible means of emergency financial' loans to fraternities who have gone local to escape forced discrimination. If the fraternities are really honest in their CIVIC THEATRE: Sentimental Ethics THERE IS a technique of play- writing that began with Dumas fils and which is extensively in use today. It combines an escape into a realm of unbridled and senti- mentality with an appearance of serious ethical meaning. Truman Capote's play, "Grass Harp," which opened last night in Trueblood Aud. under the, auspices of the Civic Theatre, is a prime example of this delibitation of drama. The play is a sentimental review of stereotypes, and a catalogue of cliches: "Leading citizens have to b e h a v e themselves, otherwise things fall apart." we are a long way from that classic function. LAST NIGHT'S performance, di- rected by Herbert Propper, was undistinguished. Although the pro- duction showed that the director had put a great deal of effort into his production, the liability of his own somewhat limited experience and the extremely inexperienced people he had to work with proved insurmountable. The performance was also marred by the presence of one or two rather crude people in the audience. No matter how bad a performance is, there is