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Eighty years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
in the mother country
Student files and records: The abuse goes on
marlin hirsechman
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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.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1970
NIGHT EDITOR: LYNN WEINER
The hidden costs
of defense spending
MONTH AFTER MONTH the Nixon Ad-
ministration has repeated the same
rhetoric in answering critics'.complaints
about the dominance of defense depart-
ment spending. The army has been re-
duced to its smallest level in several
years, some ships have been decommis-
sioned and ambitious plans for new weap-
ons have been temporarily postponed.
But in the midst of this attempt to pre-
sent a low profile, Secretary of Defense
Melvin R. Laird and his lieutenants have
begun an offensive to reverse the down-
ward trend in defense appropriations.
Laird has toured, the country to warn
that the fiscal 1971 budget is a "rock-
bottom, bare-bones" budget that will be
inadequate unless the SALT (strategic-
arms limitation) talks make more pro-
gress. In fact, Laird has warned "a tre-
mendous increase" in defense spending
may occur if peace talks fail.
Basically Laird seeks two things. First
he hopes to persuade the public and
Congress that defense spending has al-
ready reached the lowest possible level.
Also Laird hopes to persuade the House
to restore a recent $2 billion cut in the
fiscal 1971 defense appropriation.
Administration spokesman may try to
justify increases by pointing to Seattle,
Los Angeles and other cities where un-
employment has rised as a result of de-
fense cutbacks. What these statistics do
show is the ways in which the military has
reshaped the entire economy.
ONE OF THE guiding principles of
American businessmen has been
their desire to maximize profits. Tradi-
tionally wars have also led to excessive
profits by a few industrialists.
However the current conflict has pro-
duced different results. Large defense
contractors have either not made I a r g e
If you'love
Pizza Bob,
write to him
PIZZA BOB has been an institution on
campus for many a year now. His
famous food, while not up to the stand-
ards of Zen-Macro-biotics, has astounded
the taste buds of Michigan students to
the point where it is harder to get in to
Bob's two stores than the P-Bell after a
football game.
But, all institutions have their downs
a well as their ups and Pizza Bob is in
the hospital after a mild heart attack.
It would be a nice gesture if his cus-
tomers could ,send him cards, even if
they only have an Ann Arbor postmark
for once. The address is St. Joseph's Hos-
pital, Room 712, Ann Arbor, Michigan,
48104.
-MAYNARD
Editorial Staff
amounts of money or relied on other
types of work to produce their profits.
Lockheed was forced to ask the govern-
ment for a grant so it could continue
operations earlier this year. Douglas Air-
craft was acquired by McDonnell. General
Electric recently sold its computer busi-
ness when it was starting to make money
in order to gain working capital. United
Aircraft and Raytheon have relied on di-
versification into non-defense products to
maintain profits.
SIMULTANEOUSLY. the war has empha-
sized research on defense production
problems while giving relatively little at-
tention to health care, social research and
work in the physical and natural sciences.
While the Defense Department has given
up some of its funding, almost no pro-
jects have been eliminated. If and when
the war ends, the military will be glad
to allocate the surplus funds to existing
projects. Other parts of the government
which have had far smaller budgets have
been unable to develop specific programs
and will be at a disadvantage in trying to
attract part of the "peace dividend."
Meanwhile producers of typewriters,
sewing machines, radios and other con-
sumer products, who generally receive no
defense contracts, have left the United
States to manufacture their goods and
services in Europe and Asia. This move-
ment has reduced the number and var-
iety of jobs available for workers now pro-
ducing military hardware, when and if
the country returns to a peace-time econ-
omy.
Imports of basic consumer products
have also added to the minor, but con-
sistent, balance of payments deficit. Un-
til recently the U.S. exported more goods
and services than it imported, but the
figures were deceptive. For example if
merchandise alone is considered without
military goods, the balance is about zero.
But this includes a substantial volume of
exports that is the result of foreign aid,
since 80 per cent of foreign aid is tied
to American exports. Thus, if foreign aid
is included in the balance, it is negative.
FURTHERMORE domestic inflation con-
tributes to a lack of confidence in the
dollar abroad. Instead of curbing infla-
tion by raising taxes, the Nixon admin-
istration has tried to cool the economy
through tighter money and higher inter-
est rates. Meanwhile inflation has con-
tinued at an annual rate of about six
per cent. Unemployment has risen to the
the highest point in almost seven years.
Of the 150 labor market areas in the
country, 38 now have a 6 per cent un-
employment rate that is expected to con-
tinue for at least two months. In 1968,
six labor market areas had "substantial"
unemployment. The gap between what
workers could produce annually and what
they actually are producing now amounts
to $15 billion.
Even if defense spending was cut in
half immediately, the Nixon administra-
tion would probably refuse to redirect the
economy towards adjusting to peacetime
demands. Actually defense spending is
likely to increase, not decrease, and the
result will be more problems with re-
search priorities, a deficit in the balance
of payments and inflation.
-PAT MAHONEY
BACK IN THE days when campus acti-
vists were few and their activities more
or less out in the open, the University ad-
ministration had an easy . time keeping
track of the names and faces on the New
Left.
For one thing, the old Office of Student
Affairs - a much more potent and re-
pressive arm of the administration than
its successor, the Office of Student Serv-
ices - had complete lists of the members
of all student organizations, including
the radical ones.
Perhaps more to the point, OSA kept
a dossier on every University student -
including pictures, newspaper clippings,
organizational affiliations and reports for
counselors.
All that is different now, for a variety
of reasons. But it is not at all clear that
the changes have been much for the better.
The policy of keeping extensive amounts
of information about campus activists
was put to tle test - and failed miser-
ably - in the summer of 1966 when the
University received a subpoena from witch-
hunting House Un-American Activities
Committee.
The subpoena demanded that the Uni-
versity turn over lists of the names of
students in seven radical groups, three '
of which were active in Ann Arbor. The
subpoena was shuffled around the bur-
eaucracy for a while and then the Uni-
versity complied - without even notifying
those involved.
Disclosure of this action - which came
only when students began receiving sum-
monses to testify in Washington - set off
a major furor on campus.
THE UPSHOT, after years of the kind of
dawdling that is the sine qua non of the
University decision-making structure, was
a cleansing of the OSA files and - only
last April - the approval by the faculty
Senate of University-wide policies for the
maintenance and use of records.
True to University form, however, little
real change has resulted. The function that
OSA discarded has been taken up else-
where, and the Senate Assembly action is
fast proving all words and no substance.
One of the key provisions of the As-
sembly policy was that University units
should maintain only information geared
toward fulfilling its function. But t h e
loose-knit nature of the University struc-
ture has helped make a mockery of this
provision.
The three University ROTC units, for
example, have taken it upon themselves to
define part of their function as "knowing
our enemy."
The enemy, in this case, apparently in-
cludes SDS, Student Mobilization Commit-
tee, radical faculty members and even the
New Democratic Coalition. Bits of in-
formation on all these groups were con-
tained in a two-fdot thick file that was
confiscated by student demonstrators when
they took over North Hall last May.
ROTC officers, who say they have per-
sisted in regenerating the file, claim that
it is not "an intelligence or subversive file."
But the distinction they attempt to make
seems largely semantic.
For example, officers admit that they
have used information in the file - which
also contained glossy photos of many of
the campus activists - to send informa-
tion about the campus political situation to
military superiors.
THE PROBLEM of defining the mission
of ROTC for the purposes of determining
compliance with the Senate assembly re-
cords policy is especially confusing. After
all, ROTC is, a military installation as well
as a University unit. If the Defense De-
partment requests information, is this not
part of ROTC's mission?
For the multitude of conventional col-
lege units, the problem has also been al-
lowed to remain confusing. Where those
in charge of record keeping are e v e n
familiar with the Senate Assembly poli-
cies, the effect has been uncertain.
In the literary college in recent years,
for example, the use of academic records
has not been entirely above board.
In September 1968, the office placed on
file a newspaper clipping with the names
of the over 240 persons arested in the mas-
sive welfare sit-in in the Washtenaw Coun-
ty Bldg. that month. The list was marked
to indicate which were LSA students, and
office personnel said that if any of those
arrested wanted to drop a course, they
would have to make a special explanation
of why they were overworked.
Another series of incidents occurred
last spring, when Honors Council Director
Otto Graf decided to peer into the files
of some students he apparently didn't like.
According to reliable sources, he looked
into th record of T. R. Harrison after he
was arrested during the black admissions
strike.
LAST FEBRUARY, when the appoint-
ments of the Senior Editors of The Daily
were announced, LSA Administrative Board
Secretary Eugene Nissen took it upon him-
self to summon and inspect our records.
Last May, I complained to the faculty
Civil Liberties Board (which drafted the
Senate Assemhbly guidelines) on behalf of
myself and the Daily Senior Editors. But,
not surprisingly progress has been slow.
The board simply has no sanctions which
it can takeagainst those who violate re-
cord-keeping regulations.
There is no sure solution to the problem
of guaranteeing the rights to privacy of
politically active members of the Uni-
versity community, or the larger society.
Medical Prof. Donald Rucknagel, who re-
cently took over as head of the Civil Liber-
ties Board, tells me that when he became
actively involved in the peace movement,
he resigned himself to occassional invas-
ion of his private life -land his attitude
is certainly a realistic one.
On the other hand, it is reasonable to
require of the University a. more active
program of bringing the various units nto
strict conformity with the Senate As-
sembly guidelines, and investigating com-
plaints.
But until the sanctions are provided for
non-compliance and a mechanism estab-
lished to ensure enforcement, there will
have been little real progress in this area.
And the next subpoena could be just
around the corner.
0
THE BSU VIEWPOINT
A
Action on the, BAA! demands? April Foo'ls
By DAVE WESLEY
Daily Guest Writer
THIS IS AN open letter to the
University administration, the
University community at large and
especially to the black student and
community population. What we
are concerned with is the blatant
hypocrisy, deceit and r a c i s m
which is so prevalent on this cam-
pus. What we are also concerned
with is the aura of repression,
hostility and suppression of stu-
dent and University workers which
is being fostered by the adminis-
tration and its gangster cronies.
Last April 1, one of the most
malicious April Fools' Jokes ever
conceived was perpetrated by the
Board of Regents and its inden-
tured servants in the administra-
tion. At that time the Regents
made a number of agreements and
commitments to its black students
and to the black community, those
agreements a n d commitments
being of such a nature that if hon-
est and forthright action were
taken for their implementation
significant progress would have
been insured in guaranteeing a
quality and more relevant educa-
tionto the black students of this
state.
Instead, the University and its
officials have displayed not only
hesitancy and lack of cooperation
in the implementation of those
commitments but a contempt and
perverse arrogancy toward its
constituency and the black com-
munity so corrupted that they
try to point to the next to noth-
ing that they have attempted and
with pride say "Look at the grand
and glorious things we have done
for our nigroes."
THE REALITY of the situation
is far from grand and glorious.
The University was on April Fools'
Day and remains at Halloween,
despite their rhetoric and mealy-
mouthed platitudes, t h e largest
racist institution north of the Rio
Grande given an examination of
the current status of the BAM de-
mands, the University treatment
of its non-professional working
staff, (i.e. AFSCME and hospital
workers) the war research that it
engages in which is responsible for
the genocide of non-white people
all over the world, its financial in-
terests in South Africa, Asia and
Latin America, its treatment of its
athletes, and its total disregard
for rights and interests of its stu-
dent population in general.
The University at present is at-
tempting to collect five dollars
from every student to support the
student bookstore which at pres-
ent, isn't selling any books. We
would not ordinarily have any ob-
jection to this practice because it
is being done on the basis of a
student referendum. However, the
University has flagrantly asserted
that it has the option of deciding
which student referendums it will
recognize as legitimate and which
ones it will disregard.
The case in point being that
one of the original BAM demands
called for collection of three dol-
lars for the Martin Luther King
Scholarship Fund (which on the
basis of a student referendum
drew a vote of 3251 for and 1632
against). The University has re-
fused to solicit these funds on
even a voluntary basis while
threatening students with hold
credits if payment of the no-book
bookstore fee is not forthcoming.
The University committed itself
to the enrollment of 900 new black
students by Fall, 1971. At present
the recruiters who were hired to
provide those students have only
been allowed to recruit at white
schools, often cancelling visits to
black schools in the inner city of
Detroit and elsewhere. As far as
black graduate students are con-
cerned, although 300 new black
graduate students are expected
next fall not even one of the three
recruiters promised in order to ac-
complish this job has been hired.
BAM ALSO demanded of the
University the creation of a Uni-
versity-wide appeal board to rule
on the adequacy of financial aid
grants to students as well as the
revamping of the Parents Con-
fidential Statement which is nec-
essary to secure such grants. The
University-wide appeal board as of
today does not exist. The Parents
Confidential Statement which has
been used by the University for
the last three years is still being
mailed out this semester.
And finally, black student work-
ers and faculty are still being re-
ferred to by University publica-
tions, administration and other
employes as Negroes. This is a
condition which cannot be allowed
to continue.
The aforementioned "over-
sights" on t h e administration's
part are only a drop in the buck-
et compared with the other evi-
dence and examples which give us
a truer picture of the nature of
the facist-racist slave institution.
The capitalistic-parasitic slave-
master nature 'of the University
is even more clear when we con-
sider the plight of all non-ten-
ured University employes - food
workers, plant department work-
ers, hospital workers, teaching
fellows, all scuffling to be recog-
nized as legitimate groups; scuf-
fling for decent living wages and
tolerable working conditions.
Injury is added to insult when
we find that the offspring of the
servants of this institution are not
given priority consideration in en-
rolling to complete their educa-
tion.
THE UNIVERSITY has heard
time and time again the outcries
against its war research which is
being carried on in its Willow Run
Laboratories as well as the' re-
search which it performs on the
condition of the black community.
The information gathered in these
projects are being used to oppress
and destroy whole communities
the world over and must be put to
a stop.
The University is an i~respon-
sible institution., Irresponsible in
that it fosters values which force
students at the completion of their
four year stay to place themselves
on the corporate auction block and
sell themselves to the highest cap-
italist bidder. Irresponsible in that
-in ts athletics° department it
breeds among its athletes a lack.of
self-confidence and competancy in
academic spheres, preferring in-
stead to use up that athletic talent
as it sees fit, not encouraging an
attitude of responsibility to self
or to the future of the ?world com-
munity.
The University, in cahoots with
the Nixon-Agnew machine, has
declared war against the Student.
The hiring of Colonel (Fredrick)
Davids (former chief of the State
Police) who says his primary pur-
pose will be to identify and infil-
trate and spy on and destroy stu-
dent groups is the prime exam-
ple of the University's reluctance
and resistance to real change, pre-
ferring instead to remain as the,
trainer and breeder par excellence
of tomorrow's facist-capitalist, ex-
ploiter-murderers.
The black community has al-
ways recognized that the Univer-
sity is the training ground for the
people who will be their bosses,
their slave masters, their over-
seers. This is a letter to serve no-
tice to the University that we do
not wish to continue to be the
murderers and enslavers of our
own communities nor will we toler-
ate the University's attempt to
force us to be. the black com-
munity needs people with skills to
work for the building and
strengthening of the communities.
We need strong, good black doc-
tors, scientists, engineers and
technicians and we will fight for
our right to have them.
Black Love. All power to the
People.
(Dave Wesley, a former under-
graduate in liberal arts, is the
chairman of the Black Student's
Union.)
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MARTIN A.
STUART GANNES
Editorial Director
NADINE COHODAS
HIRSCHMAN, Editor
JUDY SARASOHN
Managing Editor
Feature Editor
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Letters to The Daily
Draft lottery
To the Daily:
IN THE Oct. 27 Daily an article
pointed out how a man could vol-
untarily enter the draft pool to
gain his exposure so he could then
have a lower draft status. The ar-
ticle stated that "exposure for
even part of the year counts for
the entire year, and if a man ends
the year in 1-A status without be-
ing drafted he is moved into less
vulnerable categories in following
years."
But this statement is not entire-
ly true. On Sept. 26, Curtis Tarr
issued orders saving that those
ly college grads), with numbers
between 100 and 190 will be in-
ducted ahead of the 1971 pool,
which is hardly less vulnerable, as
implied by Curtis Tarr.
THIS RAISES SOME points
about the lottery system. First, is
the system really "fair" as ori-
ginally planned, because it gives
those in the 1971 pool only 9
months exposure while they a r e
drafting those with extended lia-
bility the first three months. After
all, the system goes only f r o m
calendar to calendar year.
Secondly, if it is decided t h a t
12 months are fair for 1971, what
Taken aback
To the Daily:
I AM A little 'taken aback by
the quote about radar data, from
William Brown of Willow Run.
Does he really believe that the
difference between Viet Cong and
cows is comparable to the differ-
ence between wheat a n d corn?
Does his radar tell him when he
is looking at a Viet Cong a n d
when at some other kind of hu-
man being? (I assume he is then
going to shoot or bomb the Viet
Cong human being.)
How does a man with the feel-
ing of William Brown onme to
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