re tit$an Dait
Eighty-one years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
superscription
Putting your money where your brain was
by lynn weiner
I
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
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
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1971
NIGHT EDITOR: ROSE SUE BERSTEIN
The Nov.30 bond issue
NEXT TUESDAY, November 30, a special
election will be held which will re-
present for newly enfranchised 18-20
year olds who have registered locally their
first opportunity to vote. At that time,
Washtenaw county voters will decide
whether to approve a $27 million bonding
proposition to build and equip a Mental
Retardation Service Center.
The center, which would be designed to
serve children with moderate and severe
mental retardation and multiple physical
handicaps, would bring the three existing
programs in the county together in one
building specifically constructed with the
needs of these children in mind.
If the bonding proposal is approved, the
bonds would be paid off over a 12-year
period at a rate of .19 of mill per year.
That represents a tax increase of 19 cents
per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
There are a number of reasons why vot-
A breakthrough?
THOSE POOR souls addicted to t h e
pleasures of smoking tobacco as well
as other substances might take heart in
yesterday's report of one Dr. Barbara
Brown, of the Sepulveda Veterans Ad-
ministration Hospital in Los Angeles.
Brown, by attaching electrodes, to the
scalps of 100 subjects, found that smok-
ers had more electrical brain energy, and
consequently thought more, than n o n-
smokers.
"You can't very well have a punching
bag in the office or go about doing push-
ups," says Dr. Brown. "Smoking is a
convenient way of using up energy."
But the doctor adds a note of caution.
"This may mean smokers are more
aware, more energetic and more intelli-
gent than people who don't smoke," she
says. However, "it could mean t h a t
smokers' brains use electrical energy
more diffusely, less efficiently."
One other fact might warrant skepti-
cism. her work was done under a grant
of the Tobacco Institute -a center sup-
ported by the nation's producers of to-
bacco.
ers should approve the bonding proposi-
tion.
IN MICHIGAN, education is not manda-
tory for children who present these
special educational problems. Historically,
local school districts, who do have pro-
grams for the educable mentally retarded,
have not been in a position to provide
moderately and severely retarded child-
ren with programs.
This either denies the child an educa-
tion or forces the family to institutional-
ize the child - often an expensive and
emotionally unsound alternative.
The Washtenaw County Intermediate
School District, which proposed the cent-
er, currently sponsors three excellent pro-
grams in the county. However, two of
the programs meet in rented rooms in
churches, and the third in a public school
building used solely for the program.
None of these facilities were designed
with consideration of the needs of the
mentally retarded and physically handi-
capped in mind, and as a result restrict
the types of activities and learning pro-
grams that can be offered.
The district proposed the center on
the basis of a study assessing the current
facilities, which concluded that both for
the present and the projected population
of retarded children in the county, the
present facilities are highly inadequate.
This, the study continues, effects t h e
quality of the program.
J ACK OF SPACE for therapy, an inef-
ficient transportation system and a
lack of facilities for children in wheel
chairs are among the limitations cited by
the report and those involved with the
programs.
The present buildings also lack ade-
quate kitchen and eating facilities, re-
creation and conference areas and suf-
ficient storage space.
While program directors praise t h e
programs and the children, it is evident
that in a specially designed, fully equip-
per center the programs could be ex-
panded and the learning situations signi-
ficantly improved.
Tentative plans for the Center include
space for five age and ability level groups,
ample room for recreation, including a
swimming pool, rooms for therapy, ramps
instead of stairs and observation rooms
for parents and guests to the center to
watch the children without disturbing
them.
In4 addition, the proposed center would
include diagnostic and assessment serv-
ices which would be available to all
school-age children in the county.
Proponents of the center see it serving
as a model to other counties which may
consider building a similar center and
to planners of public buildings who often
overlook or are unaware of the needs of
the handicapped and the mentaly retard-
ed.
ALL REGISTERED VOTERS are urged
to vote yes in this special election.
The bond issue is a cause which clearly
deserves to be approved. But expressing
concern for an often neglected part of
society with their ballots will not be
enough in the long range. Voters must
recognize both the educational and social
needs of mentally retarded and physically
hiandicapped children and their families,
understanding that only through effective
programs can these children work toward
fulfilling their potential as people.
-LINDA DREEBEN
HENRY DAVID THOREAU would look glumly upon
the current student business of term paper selling,
and would probably retreat further into the woods.
"Why should we be in such desperate haste to suc-
ceed, and in such desperate enterprises?" he writes in
Walden.
It is Walden - the record of a man's rejection of
corrupt, materialistic society and his search for nature
and simple life - which has ironically become the focus
of a campus controversy,
Two organizations, Write On, Inc. and Creative Re-
search, Inc., sold the same paper on Walden to students
in the same section of English 269 here at the Univer-
sity.
The literary college's Administrative Board may
take some action against the unlucky students, with ex-
pulsion the highest possible penalty.
But the Board shouldn't be surprised that young
entrepreneurs attempt to peddle the trappings of learn-
ing or that students attempt to buy it.
OUR SOCIETY is geared towards a consumer-orienta-
tion where advertisements and commercials try to sell
everything from happiness, love, and sex to war and
peace. If you buy the right product, you buy the right
symbolic gratification.
Slogans, posters, and life styles are packaged and
promoted and bought by Americans trapped in their
concept that money can buy anything.
Why not education, as well? It seems after all the
accreditation is what is valued, rather than the learning
process itself.
The term paper syndicate, a national phenomena, sells
10,000 pages a week, and Write-On's manager says the
Ann Arbor franchise sells between 1,500 and 3,000 pages
a week - with an average weekly income of over $4,000.
They sell noble ideas and clear insights cheaply.
And they advertise. Samples from the Daily classi-
fieds the day the story of the duplication was published
include:
TERM PAPERS. Largest stock of highly graded used
term papers in the country. All disciplines. Low rates.
Also custom written papers for your special needs and
tutoring, translations, computer programs, theses, and
dissertation writing. Only term paper organization owned
and operated by college students. "Write off class work
..." your bankamericard and master charge welcome ...
WRITERS NEEDED full and part time Earn money
doing something worthwhile ...
TERM PAPER. Lowest prices in the area. Original re-
search papers from $3.00 per page. Used papers from
$1.50 per page ...
FREE PHOTOCOPYING: We will make you one
photocopy of your term paper or thesis absolutely free if
you agree to let us take a photocopy for our files . . .
This selling of the apparatus of knowledge - the
materialistic exploitation of the mind - is absurd and
saddening.
4
nfaiiv----Roatfe Tessem
Perhaps it will lead to a day when paid stenographers
sit in the classrooms and lecture halls taking notes, writ-
ing papers and exams, and receiving grades and diplomas
in the name of those whd can afford to hire them. These
rich students need not bother about the learning, but
rather about the status and symbol of the accreditation
Df learning.
This fraud and misrepresentation - although logical
extensions of the American consumer ethic - cheapens
the concept of knowledge. And it may affect the current
use of term papers as a means of evaluation, with a larger
stress on the objective multiple choice exam and the
blue book. This would be a loss for students, for the
papers rely on processes of reasoning and integration of
ideas, and are ideally a more honest and revealing
communication of thought - more so than the restric-
tive and memory-based objective criteria.
THE VISION of students shopping for papers to repre-
sent their thinking - low cost for "C" work and more
expensive for an "A" specimen - is a disheartening
one. Thought-sales are images for the young criticizing
existing society, not appropriate reflectors of reality
in an intellectual community.
These ,supermarkets of ideas exploit and rely on the
fears and pressures prevalent in the current university
system. But they are not jusified and only serve to mock
ideals of honest and sincerity in academics.
What makes the supermarkets even harder to tolerate
is the fact that it is our own peers - students - who
are exploiting their fellows and making a profit on it.
WHAT THOREAU might suggest would be some "civil"
disobedience and strenuous community objection to the
advertisements and enterprises. which exploit students
and teachers and attempt to buy and sell knowledge as if
it were carrots in Krogers.
And what' might be even more appropriate would
be for the customers and promoters of the term paper
services to take time from their busy consuming lived
to sit down and read Walden, with no material objective
except to, if they're lucky, learn something for them-
selves. Maybe then they'd understand why Thoreau
would be so saddened by the prostitution of his work.
4.
Letters to The Daily: Comments on Write-On
-
-MAYNARD
Editorial Staff
ROBERT KRAFTOWITZ
Editor
JIM BEATTIE DAVE CHUDWIN
Executive Editor Managing Editor
STEVE KOPPMAN ........... Editoria, Page Editor
RICK PERLOFF .... Associate -Editorial Page Editor
PAT MAHONEY .... Assistant Editorial Page Editor
LARRY LEMPENT . ..... Associate Managing Editor
LYNN WEINER .. Associate Managing Editor
ANITA CRONE ..........................Arts Editor
JIM IRWIN.................Associate Arts Editor
ROBERT CONROW.................. Books Editor
JANET FREY..................Personnel Director
JIM JUDKIs..................Photograr"-v Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Rose Sue Berstein, Lindsay Chaney,
Mark Dillen, Sara Fitzgerald, Tammy Jacobs, Alan
Lenhoff, Arthur Lerner, Hester, Pulling, Carla
Rapoport, Robert Schreiner, W.E. Schrock, Geri
Sprung.
COPY EDITORS: Pat Bauer, Chris Parks, Gene Robin-
son.I
DAY EDITORS: Linda Dreeben, John Mitchell, Han-
nah Morrison, Beth Oberfelder, Tony Schwartz,
Gloria Jane Smith, Ted Stein, Paul Travis, Marcia
Zoslaw.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Robert Barkin, Jan
Benedetti, Steve Brummel, Janet Gordon, Lynn
Sheehan, Charles Stein,
Sports Staff
MORT NOVECK, Sports Editor
JIM KEVRA, Executive Sports Editor
RICK CORNFELD............Associate Sports Editor
TERRI POUCHEY....... Contributing Sports Editor
BETSY MAHON........Senior Night Editor
TERRI FOUCHEY.........Contributing Sports Editor
SPORTS NIGHT EDITORS: Bill Alterman, Bob An-
drews, Sandi Genis, Joel Greer, Elliot Legow,
John Papanek, Randy Phillips, Al Shackelford.
r
To The Daily:
WHILE I AGREE with most of
the Daily's editorial of November
23, I feel that he writes off "Write
On" too easily.
Students can petition and talk
until they're arthritic; an "educa-
tional" system whose purpose is to
mathematically evaluate students
for prospective employers and
grad schools is unlikely to be
swayed by idealistic arguments.
Only through a massive undermin-
ing of the structure, using s u c h
organizations as "Write On," will
any change be effected.
Sure, it would be nice if some
well-endowed student organization
like UAC could have a national.
computer market link with other
schools so students could get their
papers cheaply and untraceably,
but there isn't a snowball's chance
in hell of this happening.
Until then, "Write On," however
profiteering, is the best there is.
Their "wildly offbeat moral code"
is not much worse than the Uni-
versity's in this respect, and we
patronize that.
-Peter Munsing, '72
Nov. 23
To The Daily:
THE DAILY'S editorial, "Behind
Write-On Inc." (Nov. 23), is a
deceitful, transparent attempt to
absolve two student cheaters
caught in the act of plagiarism of
any guilt in the matter, and to
transfer their guilt to the entire
University community.
The cheaters, Perloff declares,
couldn't help it, since "the pri-
mary onus must fall on a system
of university education more con-
cerned with paper credentials,
than in close personal dialogue
and interaction." Observe the false
dichotomy in his statement: pap-
er credentials and close personal
dialogue and interaction are not
mutually exclusive, regardless of
Perloff's epistemology; by a t -
tempting to make them appear so,
Perloff seeks to obliterate the legi-
timate concept of credentials, i.e.
standards. vis-a-vis university ed-
ucation ...
The crux of his argument is
contained in the following: "it is
no surprise that students a r e
brought to cheating under t h e s e
artificial pressures." Students, hu-
man beings, we are told, are no
better than laboratory animals.
without volition.
After a perfunctory reference to
the role of the faculty in this de-
terministic University world, and
"denying all moral considera-
tions," Perloff writes off Write-
On as mere exploiters of "stu-
dents under pressure deadlines."
In other words, Write-On Inc. is
to be condemned principally not
for its lack of ethics, but for its
existence as a profitable (i.e. cap-
italist) concern. Capitalism, n o t
deliberate immorality, we are told.
is also responsible for the actions
of these two cheaters. Will the
wonders of economic determinism
ever cease?
Perloff seeks the destruction of
the concepts of human volition,
morals, values, and above all,
standards of any kind. Presum-
ably, he will then be free to live
in the egalitarian world of the
mediocre which he so earnestly de-
sires. I say, let us leave him to it.
-Michael P. Rose, PhD '71
ro The Daily:
BECAUSE OF the behavior of
Coach Woody Hayes at the g a m e
yesterday I feel compelled to write
this letter of apology. You will do
'he great majority of Ohio State
fans a real favor on behalf of your
great university if you print these
'emarks in The Daily. Thanks very
much.
To the Michigan Student Body:
On behalf of the great majority of
,he students and faculty of Oh 1 o
State University, congratulations on
a great game! You deserved to win.
and we join in wishing your team
the very best on New Year's Day.
Please realize that the great ma-
jority of us at Ohio State also do
not condone our coach's behavior,
and we ask you to consider this as
the action of one man only.' We are
proud of the way our team played
but mightly ashamed of C o a c h
Hayes.
Let us hope that the fine athletic
relationship between two great
schools will not be marred by this
incident. Once again, we're pulling
for you at Pasadena.
-Prof. James F. Engel
Ohio State University
An apology for Coach Hayes
4
An. angryWoody Hayes
It
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Errors
To The Daily:
I AM AMAZED at how many in-
accuracies, both implied and di-
rect, a Daily reporter can incor-
porate in two sentences.
Mr. Jonathan Miller reported in
the November 18 issue of the
Daily that the Engineering D e a n
hosted "an affair for several prom-
inent guests Monday night, charg-
ed the elegant meal to his depart-
ment's funds. Following the din-
ner, his guests - General Motors
President James Roche and his
top associates - accompanied
their host to the plush lower level
of the house for 'business discus-
sions.'"
1. The "affair" to which Mr.
Miller referred was a regular
semi-annual meeting of the In-
dustry Committee of the College
of Engineering, an advisory group
to the College. The membership of
this group and its purposes a r e
public information available to
anyone who requests it. The Exe-
trust and confidence on this cam-
pus if it made a determined ef-
fort to increase the accuracy of its
reporting.
-Gordon J. Van Wylen
Dean, College of Engineering
Nov. 19
ED. NOTE: Miller apologizes for
the inaccuracies, but adds that had
his request for a telephone inter-
view with Dean van Wylen b e e n1
responded to, the regrettable mis-
takes could have been corrected be-'
forehand.
Judiciary
To The Daily:
I FOUND L i n d s a y Chaney's
article on the judiciary question
(Daily, Nov. 10) lucid and infor-
mative. If it is a fair statement
of student opinion on this matter,
then it seems to me that there is
a substantial conflict between the
student and faculty positions. Most
faculty would agree that the aca-
demic suspension of a student for
a non-academic offense is ques-
tionable, and I think that most
course to disrupt a given lecture
in that course, he would, to say-
the least, find himself in a curious
academic position. Should a stu-
dent not enrolled in a course he
disrupts be treated differently?
The question is more than aca-
demic.
Most students and faculty seem
to agree that classified research
should be banned from the cam-
pus. Our agreement on this issue
raises several questions relevant
to the- question of academic pro-
priety, for the position which justly
opposes classified research haso
been based here at the University
more on the issue of academic
ethics, i.e. the need for the access-
ibility of all research, than on the
many valid political elements at
play.
If making secret weapons for
political purposes can be seen as
an academic question, indeed, as
an academic offense, then I fail
to see why the political disruption
of a classroom should not be sub-
i