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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
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TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1971
NIGHT EDITOR: ROSE SUE BERSTEIN
Threat to students' rights
AS AMERICAN universities have grown
into ' mammoth multiversities, there
has often been a corresponding growth of
bureaucratic insensitivity on the part of
some administrators to t h e individual
needs of students.
Administrators have too often become
remote figures who arbitrarily make de-
cisions without realizing the full import
of their rulings on the lives and futures
of thousands of students. The eight-term
rule recently put into effect by the liter-
ary college is a good example of this in-
sensitivity.
Last November - quietly, and appar-
ently without much thoughtful consider-
ation - the LSA Administrative Board
instituted a policy prohibiting under-
graduate students from registering dur-
ing, the regular fall or winter terms if
they had not received their degree after
eight terms.
Almost capriciously adopted, the rule
was passed by the Administrative Board
without input from the LSA student gov-
ernment or students, in general. The
board did nothing to inform the over 12,-
000 students it handles about its heavy-
handed action,
AS A RESULT, about 100 fourth-year
students have already been notified
that they cannot register f o r the fall
term, although they had not been pre-
viously informed of the policy.
The reasons given for the policy in a
letter sent by Eugene Nissen, secretary of
the Administrative Board, to the 100 stu-
dents involved are "enrollment pressures"
a n d "abstract -educational considera-
tions.
As for Mr. Nissen's "abstract educa-
tional considerations," he and the other
members of the board would do well to
consider the effects of the eight-t e r m
rule on many students.
T h is policy endangers students, with
low draft lottery numbers, heightens the
problems of students who must w o r k
their way through school, limits student
involvement in extracurricular activities,
creates difficulties for students who
change their majors and generally les-
sens. what little flexibility students have
in planning their academic program.
One of the most frightening effects of
the rule is on students whose full-time
enrollment at the University is the only
thing between them and an unwanted
trip to Indochina.
While the 2-S deferment officially lasts
four years, draft boards frequently allow
students who have not graduated addi-
tional time to finish their educations.
With President Nixon's efforts at achiev-
ing a zero-draft call, the added year or
two could prove critical to students with
a low draft lottery number.
HE EIGHT-TERM rule also wo r k s
hardships on students who are pay-
ing their way through school with part-
Business Staff
JAMES M. STOREY, Business Manager'
RICHARD RADCLIFFE SUZANNE BOSCHAN
jAAdvertising Manager Sales Manager
JANET ENGL ....................Personnel Director
JOHN SOMMERS ..... Finance Manager
ANDY GOLDING .. . Circulation Manager
DEPARTMENT MANAGERS: Doug Buchanan, Beth
Greelev, Fran Hymen,'Caryn Miller, Skip Woodward.
Sports Staff
MORT NOVECK, Sports Editor
JIM KEVRA, Executive Sports Editor
RICK CORNFELD .......... Associate Sports Editor
'ERRI FOUCHEY ... ..Contributing Sports Editor
time jobs. In order to do well academical-
ly and still make enough money to keep
up with rising tuition rates, these stu-
dents sometimes take a reduced course
load.
Although the Administrative Board has
said it will take extenuating circumstanc-
es into consideration in administering
the rule, its policy will force students to
either cut back the number of hours they
work or to spend less time studying per
course.
While getting through school is no
easy task for the poor student in the first
place, the Administrative Board h a s
heightened the uncertainty a n d pres-
sures these students undergo. 0
A third effect of the enrollment limita-
tion will be to discourage. extensive ex-
tracurricular participation on the part of
involved students. Often students heavily
active in athletics, student government,
drama, student publications, the Univer-
sity Activities Center and various politi-
cal organizations have taken less than a
full program.
THIS IS FULLY justifiable, because ed-
ucation comes from many experienc-
es besides traditional classes. To arbitrar-
ily say that students cannot take a re-
duced course 1 o a d is to limit students
from engaging in these experiences and
represents a restricted viewpoint as to
the activities from which students learn.
Another disadvantage of the r u 1 e is
that students who change their majors
might find themselves booted out of the
college for the regular academic year be-
fore they have completed t h e require-
ments in their new field.
Many students come to the University
unsure of what area they wish to special-
ize in. If students change their major
early in their University career, few
problems develop.
If, however, students' interest change
after their sophomore year, they might
be forced to attend the University for an
additional period to qualify for a degree
in their new subject. This would generally
not be allowed under the eight-term rule.
THUS THE DECISION of the Adminis-
trative Board to set a time limit on
enrollment will have the effect of elim-
inating leeway students have in planning
their academic program. A student will
have to fulfill degree requirements in an
arbitrary period or forfeit the right to at-
tend the University during the reglar
academic year.
As such this policy is ill-conceived, ed-
ucationally harmful, and repugnant to
those who believe t h a t an individual
should have the greatest amount of free-
dom in planning his education and his
future.
Acting Dean Alfred Sussman and the
Administrative Board should reassess the
situation and consider whether the eight-
term rule is desirable.
o HELP THEM along, Student Govern-
ment Council, the LSA student gov-
ernment and concerned literary college
faculty members should take the lead in
denouncing this inept policy and press-
ing the Administrative Board to rescind
its decision.
For too long faceless bureaucrats have
been tinkering with the education and
lives of students behind their backs.
-DAVE CHUDWIN
Managing Editor
IT'S NOT THE h o1 y crusade,
rambling through jungles, but
he values certain principles like
duty and honor and service to
country - no he don't cherish
them but thinks a man should do
the right thing, so he strolls away
to war.
He's been told about the na-
tional security, how Communism
is wrong, must be stopped, so he's
needed, afterdthe massacre say-
ing "They didn't give it a race.
they didn't give it a sex, t h e y
didn't give it an age. They never
let me believe it was just a phil-
osophy in a man't mind. That was
just my enemy out there."
He's been in battle one hell of
a while, this lieutenant, storm-
ing fields, stomping blood so who
wouldn't in the scorching shatter-
proof second pinched into action
by a scream maybe or some in-
ane smell, who wouldn't react with
gunfire..
HOW MANY TIMES as some
protest yawns through the streets,
not one brick blinks, not one pol-
icy changed after five years, and
the police . . a cop jabs a friend,
and someone you perhaps crash
into t h a t pig without rational
aforethought, just a c t somehow
and you maybe kill him.
How many times someone near-
ly slugs that cop but catches him-
self only sometimes y o u, don't.
How many times like in Pitts-
burgh last month a man kills a
cop he had called to his house to
stop a burglar he thought he
heard, thinking the cop was the
burglar but not thinking just
shooting.
So Calley ain't no beast, his in-
stincts, sometimes they're our
language - especially those who
slammed bricks into North Hall,
the Ann Arbor Bank, even a silly
stamp store on South U. to shat-
ter the System last spring, not
thinking only knowing that Cap-
italism is the enemy except "they
didn't give it a race, they didn't
give it an age."
No, if you are Calley knowing
Communism Is Buzzards (or a
student thinking Capitalism Glit-
ters Oppression) then you fear the
Enemy and you will not think, you
will stab it anyway you can any-
where you can, quite easy because
the who does not exist.
ALL THAT LIVES if you're like
so no matter how you turned poor
man tradition got spanked.
No wonder a nation sympathizes
with its lieutenant. That defiant
martyr breathes every slap h i s
countrymen bore ten years. And,
ain't it a sight but the lieutenant
isn't budging. He keeps that pride
like a stubborn mad dog 'cept the
lieutenant they don't call *nad.
Oh, the lieutenant is dogged all
right. He's themost american
American this country has seen in
some time and make no mistake,
people know it. Because after ten
years of is h a mn e and confusion
folks can pull up their suspenders
and strut down the street.
... ALL RIGHT, we couldn't
beat them in Vietnam and maybe
no one could melt that goddamn
ghost, but y o u ain't seeing no
American humbled. Why, you look
at the lieutenant anddhe's stand-
ing as tall and proud as river a
man could. He's sticking to his
decision to massacre; ain't yield-
ing to no one.
That never-say-die he's-his-own
man rugged frontier soldier who-
wouldn't give in to any chicken-
bellied, lilly-livered, gum-chewing
pack of commie-smelling, name-
chanting, aromatic college stu-
dents nor to a barrel of oriental
fiends. Now, damn it all, the lieu-
tenant did the best he could,
didn't ask the help of any man,
woman or child when he come
back, only finds he's been branded
for doing what's required in the
course of war-time duty only he,
came back a soldier, and alive, but
didn't get any medal for t h a t.
singing:
"When the wars are over
And the battles finally won
Count me as a soldier
Who never left his gun
With the only right to serve my
country
As the only prize I've won
As we go marching on."
TheMyLDitchCisAnothe Victim
The My Lai Ditch Caims Another Victim
Calley is some effluvium, Com-
munism; the indoctrinaires said
it swarms above the sky and hov-
ers a threat over mankind but in
the fields when you try to hunt
it, its emissaries creep away; when
you capture some scraggly dwarf
who admits he's of the enemy, you
know that just can't be the flesh
of Communism.
Hell, they sent you here to wipe
out Communists and not o n 1 y
can't you kill them you can't even
find them. So you scrounge every
village, sniff through every ham-
let, clawing in m a d hunger to
catch a shimmer of the Enemy
they told you to fight and you'll
go to most any length - ravage a
town, obliterate people - if that'll
mean you'll confront this ghost
they said was Communism.
Except they never told you that
ghost was some fantasy a tired
general snorted up one afternoon
long ago, and since then has be-
come a fantasy with hades-like
proportions - bubbling with such
enormity of fear t h a t nothing.
real could possibly approach it.
. . . "When my troops were get-
ting massacred and mauled by an
enemy I couldn't see and I couldn't
touch - that nobody in the mili-
tary system ever described as any-
thing other than Communism . .."
WELL LIEUTENANT, a nation
sympathizes; a nation accustomed
to shining victory across its door-
way has staggered through a de-
cade when its honorable, hard-
working boys have been f 1 n g
snickers by an enemy at home and
booted and baited and shamed by
an enemy abroad which the boys
couldn't see to begin with, which
seemed to expand at every turn
, . posing a threat to the Cali-
fornia beaches, said Mr. Rusk ..)
YES, INIEED, the only prize
the lieutenant did win was the
duty to his country but, says many
Americans, after ten years of
booby traps and sinking confus-
ion, that's glory quite enough so
wouldn't you know it but there is
some dignity around; 'cept to oth-
ers it's such a crazy sort of dig-
nity and wretched type of defi-
ance it don't deserve the label;
only it don't merit spite either,
just some lonely crumbs of pity.
V -i
Letters to The Daily
Confronting sexism:
IBerstein vs. Canham
'Eight-term' rule
To The Daily:
I URGE the LSA Administra ive
Board to reconsider its "eight-
term" decision, which forces stu-
dents, regardless of their desires,
to take at least 15 hours each term.
I appreciate the problem faced by
universities these days, squeezed
between growing commitments and
declining funds. But I feel strong-
ly that this is not the way to solve
the problem.
University education, education,
that is, for young adults, has al-
ways involved vastly more than
class room lectures and assign-
ments. The so-called extra-currie-
ular activities (whether campus
politics or poetry readings, ath-
letics or just desultory conversa-
tion and general reading) are es-
sential, not peripheral to it.
Moreover, is there not by now
enough evidence that our society
is undergoing a fundam.ntal trans-
formation towards more diversi-
fied, freely chosen, and more per-
sonally meaningful rife patterns
as well as towards greater ease, a
less compulsive, more relaxed at-
titude toward life and work. And
what about the really good stu-
dents, those who want to probe
deeply and imaginatively in and
about their studies and who,
therefore, prefer to take fewer
courses? Surely, some of you at
least must share my dismay at
watching students rush through,
skim and cram great works of
thought and literature because of
the pressure of too many courses,
excessive assignments, and rigid
deadlines. I find it particularly de-
pressing to think that teachers (in
contrast to administrators) should
now be taking a further step to-
ward encouraging this mockery
and corruption of authentic educa-
tion.
I FEEL AS keenly as I do about
this now, I think, because I have
just been involved in similar ques-
tions at the next, graduate, phase
of the grind. For, having been
rushed headlong through the first
four years, the students will find
in graduate school exactly the
same oppressive pressure-or even
explicit requirement - to speed
along to completion.
There is another way. The finan-
cial impass can be turned into a
splendid opportunity for quality
(as against time-and-motion) edu-
cation. If there are too few rooms
and teachers, then encourage stu-
dents to take lighter loads (what
they do not take, others can), and,
most important, reduce class "con-
tact" hours: let the students do
much more on their own, outside of
class, away from their teachers. In
other words, trust them. They will
flourish in this greater freedom.
As for those, who would not, is it
likely that they are getting more
from the present skim-cram con-
veyor-belt?
-Arthur P. Mendel
Professor of History
April 12
Conservatives
To The Daily:
SATURDAY'S EXPOSE of '"U"
conservatives" was exactly the
kind of reporting which has won
the Michigan Daily its wonderful
reputation both within and without
the University community. Besides
the usual Daily carelessness with
easily researched facts (e.g. Wil-
lam Buckley is not publisher but,
editor of National Review), your
reporter seriously distorted the
diverse (as distinct from divisive)
nature of conservatism at U. of
M. The conservative movement at
U. of M. has, in fact, been a model
of cooperation between individ-
uals dedicated to the establishment
of a more free and humane so-
ciety
This cooperative conservative
movement should not be simple-
mindedly equated with the U. of
M. College Republican Club. With-
in this latter organization there is
a small but vocal contingnet of
left-wing Ripon Society liberals
(i.e. "Republicans for Respon-
sible Government")
FOR THE MOST part, in other
words, differences with CR have
been along classic liberal-conserva-
tive lines and not within the con-
servative movement. Therehare a
handful of CR conservatives who
have misinterpreted Kevin Phil-.
lip's book, The Emerging Repub-
lican Majority to mean that lead-
ership of the Republican Party in
Michigan must be conceded to the
Ripon-type representatives of the
"liberal establishment."
I anticipate, however, that these
individuals will rather quickly find
their true philosophical nome as it
becomes more and more clear that
we cannot afford the luxury of poli-
tics-as-usual while the Ripon-types
are so intent on ruling and so cap-
able of ruining both )arty and
country. In short, I expect twe con-
servative movement at U. of M. to
continue its rapid gains in size,
confidence and unity-regardless
of the Michigan Daily.
-Mark V. Ruessm inn
Chairman, U. of M. YAF
former Membership
Chairman, CR
U Towers
To The Daily:
IN REGARD to the Daily article
about "U Towers", in which it was
stated that there were cockroaches
on the lower floors last Septem-
4,
By JONATHAN MILLER
ATHLETIC DIRECTOR Don Canham will shortly decide to bar Rose
Sue Berstein from her seat on the Board in Control of Intercolleg-
iate Athletics. He will cite, as justification for his action, a provision,
in the Regents by-laws which provides that members of the board
must be men.
No matter to Canham that Berstein ran for her seat and won
it in the all-campus elections held last month - the regulations
speak for themselves and Berstein will be deprived of her right to a
seat, as will those who voted for her be deprived of the representative
of. their choice on this highly important board.
The reason for the existence of a regental by-law which so
clearly discriminates against women is obvious. There are no womens'
sports at the intercollgiate level. Canham, prefering to concentrate
on his football and basketball squads, with an eye for the future of
hockey, has consistently iignored women's demands that they be
permitted a piece of the multi-million " dollar Athletic Department
action.
CANHAM WILD not be able
to claim that he is "only following
orders" when barring Berstein
from the board because Canham
ttraditionally' follows orders from
nobody. This can be seen in the
case of his pre-football game press
smokers, from which women are'*
=<barred. Despite clear University
regulations, state and federal laws
and over-riding public sentiment,
female journalists are not permit-
ted to attend this function.
An additional example of the
manner in which Canham and his V
bully-boys in the Athletic Depart-
_ ment operate was exposed in an
incident that occurred when a fe-
male Daily photographer was
threatened because of her pre-
sence (with male photographers)
on the football field.
Rose Sue Berstein Canham will not merely be
obeying regental regulations when
he bars Berstein from her seat on the board - he will be reinforc-
ing his department's policy of consistently ignoring the rights of women
in general and women athletes in particular.
For Canham to have to sit with an avowed womens liberationist
on the Board In Control of Intercollegiate Athletics would, one fancies,
be too much for his male ego. It is because of this, not Regents rules,
that Canham will strive to keep Beastein off the board.
CANHAM IS however confronted t h is time with an enemy
whose power base is ultimately stronger than his own.
Even at a time of general political apathy Berstein should find no
difficulty in recruiting numerous supporters to aid her in struggling
against Canham. The spectacle of Rose Sue Berstein, like a strange
and heroic superwoman, singlewomanly confronting the entire Ath-
letic Department will arouse passions such as those that have not
been seen since the days of the BAM strike.
One can envision a situation even now when Berstein, with her
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