Wednesday, September 2, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Academics-Page Five
Wednesday, September 2, 1970 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Academics-Page Five
Committee
'By ROB BIER
SACUA, Assembly, SRC.
These and other cryptic apel-A
lations march endlessly across
the headlines of The Daily sig-
naling action by one of the fac-
ulty's governmental bodies.
Senate Assembly
The most central of these
groups, although not necessarily
the most. powerful, is Senate
Assembly. Established in the
spring of 1965, the representa-
tive body of about 60 members
replaced the cumbersome a l -
faculty University Senate as the
faculty's main policy-making
group.
Assembly works by persuad-
ing faculty members, the ad-
ministrAtion, the Regents, and
students to follow action it has
agreed upon. For example, the'
m o r n i n g before Assembly's
meeting during the BAM strike,
the deans of the schools and
colleges met with some of the
University's vice presidents and
Assembly Chairman Prof. Jos-
eph Payne, and tentatively
agreed to reorder their own bud-
gets to find money for financ-
ing increased black enrollment.
They added, however, that As-
sembly backing would be nec-
essary before t h e yr could go
back and "sell" the plan to their
respective executive boards.
Payne then called a meeting
of Assembly, during w h i c h a
resolution was passed calling on
the schools and colleges to
search their own resources for
funds.
That was just what the deans
needed, and two days. later the
faculty assembly of the liter-
ary college said it would find
the funds. With others indicat-
ing they would follow, Presi-
dent Robben Fleming was able
to say that funding was "as-
sured."
During the impasse over the
student bookstore last fall, As-
sembly assisted in setting up
t h e ad hoc student-faculty
group which eventually wbrked
out a compromise acceptable to
the Regents. However, not all of
Assembly's work is related to
"crisis" situations. It also ap-
points faculty members to Uni-
versity-wide committees, and,
increasingly; the administration
has asked Assembly for its opin-
ion on such issues as the apa-
demic calendar.
Assembly's track . record on
getting its, actions approved by
the Regents is a good one. Its
only serious rebuffs so far have
come over proposed Regental
bylaws dealing with the judic-
iary system which it approved,
and over the powers ofthe new
University Council (UC), to
which Assembly suggested au-
thority be given to make broad
rules for the University. The Re-
gents added their veto power to
that resolution.
Those two defeats, . however,
may be joined by others this
coming year as the Regents con-
sider other proposed bylaws.
Regental opposition to the pro-
posed bylaws drafted nearly two
years ago by an ad hoc student-
faculty group has been almost
unbending when dealing w i t h
the area of student power. That,,
more so than "faculty power,"'
was the main reason for the
trouble with the judiciary and
UC. Curiously enough, such op-
position by the Regents. rather
power:.
than forcing the faculty to
abandon the students in favor L
of its own interests, has creat-
ed a somewhat fragile coalition c
of students and faculty.I
SACUA
Like most representative bod- t
ies, 'Assembly accomplishes most <
of its work by use of commit- E
tees, the most important of t
these being the Senate Advis-
ory Committee on University t
Affairs (SACUA).
Assembly rules describe SAC-
UA's role as that of implement- t
ing policies' passed by Assembly,
But SACUA has co0m e under t
fire several times this past year
from students who claim SAC-
UA often makes decisions, us-
ually in secret, which affect not
only the faculty, but the entire E
University community. Specif-
ically, the students have been t
critical of SACUA's involvement
in decisions to bring police on 1
campus during the LSA Bldg.
sit-in in September and during '
the February "block-in" of re- s
cruiters from the General Elec-
tric Co.
SACUA's role as an observer
has been a familiar one this '
past year as SACUA members
were on campus constantly dur-
ing the BAM strike, attempting
to assess for themselves what
was happening. And at the LSA
sit-in' over the student book-
store, three SACUA members
were in the building urging stu-
dents to leave less t h a n two
hours before the 400 police ar-
rived.+
While such action is not an
official function of SACUA, its
members believe that as mem-
bers of the University commun-
ity, it is part of their job..
Faculty
input
'i
The nine Assembly members
who compose SACUA serve stag-
gered three-year terms with its
chairman serving as the chair-
man of Assembly as well.
SACUA also serves as advisor
to the president; and partly be-
cause of that role, its tradition-
ally closed meetings were at-
tended several times last spring
by students attempting to get
that ban lifted. After heated ex-
changes on both sides, SACUA
finally agreed to open portions
of its meetings, leaving closed
the parts reserved for consider-
ation of committee nomina-
tions.
Other Committees
SACUA, however, is not the
only Assembly committee. Num-
erous others exist, each con-
cerned with specific areas of in-
terest - Academic Affairs,
Student Relations (SRC), Civil
Liberties, Faculty E c o n o m i c
Status, Calendar, a n d- so on.
Some committees have regular
assignments, such as the Eco-
nomic Status Committee which
issues a yearly report. Others,
such as SRC, attempt to deal
with issues as they develop on
campus.
All Assembly committees un-
dertake work referred to them
by the parent body. One such
example is the s t u d y of the
ROTC program, b e g u n in
spring 1969.
SACUA formed t h e original
resolution for a study after be-
coming aware of rising student
opposition to ROTC's on cam-
pus. Assembly passed the pro-
posal and referred action to the
Academic Affairs Committee
which, like most Assembly com-
Mittees had students serving on
the committee and taking part
in its work. Although most of
the students refused to serve,
claiming that there was not fair
s t u d e n t representation, the
committee went ahead - hold-
ing o p e n forums and calling
witnesses.
The majority report, released
last fall ,called for reducing the
status of ROTC and the Uni-
versity's support of it. Assem-
bly eventually passed the ma-
jority report and the Regents,
in turn, approved it.
Which faculty group has "the
power"? That question has no
obvious answer. The schools and
colleges are largely autonomus,
and their executive boards, such
as the LSA board, are the ones
which make most of the final
decisions. The central adminis-
tration controls the budget and
through that control, can exert
varying degrees of pressure on
the schools and colleges. The
Regents have ultimate author-
ity, as they demonstrated in
May by passing interim disci-
plinary rules without consulting
either faculty or students. And
as noted before, SACUA's and
Assembly's main strength lies in
their powers of persuasion as
the faculty's executive arm and
official spokesman - and that
power is not. inconsiderable.
The coming year, with its
promise of a bitter battle over
the judiciary, could well increase
a developing polarization within,
the faculty. Although Senate
Assembly a year ago approved
the proposed bylaws, with their
provision for an all-student
judiciary, the LSA faculty as-
sembly has since rejected it,
saying that the faculty should
'U
decisions
be involved, as well. In adopting
their interim rules, the Regents
cut both groups out of the pro-
cess and set up outside hearing
officers to be appointed by the
president.
And while Assembly, SACUA,
and the Assembly's committees
have managed to build up their
influence over the past four
years, the Regents' pre-emptory
action may mark a turning point
-the Assembly structure may
either be partially squeezed out
of the picture or be forced to
seek a more powerful role in
University decision-making.
A Special Welcome to Ann, Arbor
t
Radical College
By ANITA WETTERSTROEMil
...the time of a silent. ac-
quiescent faculty is gone."
So stated: 40 members of the
newly-formed Radical College
last February in a letter sent to
the Senate Advisory Committee
on University Affairs (SACUA),
to President Robben Fleming,
and to the faculty and campus
at large.
Approximately 80 f awc u 1t'y
members and students met at
that time to discuss the threat-
ened expulsion from the Univer-
sity of Students for a Demo-
cratic Society (SDS) and the
revocation of scholarships of
student protesters. Out of that
meeting emerged a student-fac-
ulty group which called itself
the Radical College.
The' membership of the Radi-
cal College w a s not clear at
first. Some believed the group
should be "open" to anyone in-
terested in joining. Some felt
that students experienced with
radical activities would be ben-
efical to the group's faculty
members.'
Other professors countered
that the Radical College would
be more tactically effective as
an exclusive faculty body since
it could draw on a prestige they
feared would be lacking in a
mixed organization of faculty;
and students.
As it turned out, the students
remaihed, usually making up
about half the attendance at
subsequent meetings.
The Radical College did not
lose sight of one of its original
goals, however - to provide a
faculty voice other than Sen-
ate Assembly.
Founders of the Radical Col-
lege asserted that Senate As-
sembly, whose members are
chosen as delegates by their de-
partments and colleges, was in-
adequate as a faculty voice. "Be-
pause of the undemocratic way
in which (its) members are
chosen," explained Psychology
Prof. Richard Mann, "the As-
sembly consists mainly of those
professors who have the great-
est seniority."
History Prof. Arthur Mendel
described t h e Assembly as a
"sort of mutual admiration so-
ciety," merely enforcing the ad-
ministration's stand on most is-
sues.
The Radical College, whlich .is
not officially recognized by the
University as a faculty body,
makes its presence felt mainly
in influencing other groups and
individuals, its miembers f e e 1.
"Our purpose is mainly to edu-
cate," Mendel says.
The establishment of the
Radical College did not go un-
challenged. Faculty members
wrote to The Daily accusing the
radical faculty of "avowedly
ignoring facts related to policy
matters," specifically in refer-
ence to the college's defense of
SDS protesters. One critic of
*the college expressed fear for
"the very life of reason" at the
University.
But the Radical College has
proceeded with its intention of
getting involved in the political-
ly related activites of the Uni-
versity. "
Just nine days after the col-
lege was organized, two of its
members were refused entrance
to a University-sponsored semi-
nar on "International Licensing
and Joint Ventures." The closed
seminar, which was attended by
businessmen paying a $100 fee
to learn "methods of increasing
business growth and profitabil-
ity. overseas,"' presented speak-
ers from Dow Chemical Corp.
and Ford Motor Co.
The two faculty mem-
bers had originally been extend-
ed invitations to attend the
seminar after their requests to
address the seminar had been
denied. The intention of t h e
radical delegates was "to do ev-
erything to make what they're
(members of the closed semi-
nar) doing as public as possi-
ble."
Although they were not seat-
ed at the seminar, members of
Radical College feel they were
nonetheless effective.
"We showed the campus that
there really are imperialist con-
ferences taking place at t h i s
University," Mann says.
Major targets of the Radical
College have been what it re-
ferred to in its first public state-
ment as "the real criminals" on
ca'mpus -. t h e military, the
producers a n d researchers of
weapons of genocide and coun-
ter-insurgencey and the corpor-
ate controllers of education."
One of the initial actions tak-
en by the Radical College was
the issuance of a demand that
Fleming suspend .all 'job re-
cruiting on campus, and a call
for a one-day class moratorium
in which the University com-
munity would attempt to form-
ulate a policy on the 'U's in-
volvement w i t h corporations
and the military.
Hoping to build student un-
derstanding of the recruiting is-
sue and to mobilize student par-
ticipation in specific actions
against recruiters on campus,
the Radical College united with
a number of lo c a 1 groups to
form a coalition to p 1 a n the
one-day moratorium early in
March. Among its co-sponsors
were the Student Mobilization
Committee, SDS, ENACT, Ten-
ants' Union, Women's Libera-
tion, White Panthers and Black
Berets.
The high point of the mora-
torium was a forum of repre-
sentatives from Dow Chemical
Corp. and members of Radical
College. The topic w a s "The
role of the chemical company in
social and political problems of
the day."
Two weeks a f t e r the Dow
confrontation, the Radical Col-
lege announced its unanimous
endorsement of the demands of
the Black Action Movement
(BAM). By so doing, the college
became one of the first campus
bodies to acknowledge
of BAM whose strike v
come the m o s t effe
University has known.
The BAM demands
the admission of 900r
students to the Univ
1971-72 and an increa
porportion of black st
ten per cent of thet
dent population by 19'
When the BAM strik
a reality, radical prof
lustrated their support
Get
ormed
the goals celling their classes and join-
vas to be- ing BAM picket linres.
ctive the "We supported BAM a whole
month before their strike took
included place," Mann says, "and while
new black we have no claim to its tremen-
'ersity by dous success, we hope we had
se in the some effect in rallying the sup-
udents to port it won."
total stu- Radical College plans, for the
73-74. future include drafting a "rad-
:e became ical critique" of University goals
essors il- and structure to be released this
t by can- fall.
.ar -ar
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