IIt £14t&tn a4 Eighty-one years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan *1 Green defends showing of anti-war slides 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. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1972 Dunn: Evil precedent set By MARK GREEN T IS the obligation of any teach- er to explain the revelance of his or her subject. For example, some weeks ago I took class time to explain how a large California based corporation was using the science of organic chemistry to isolate and synthesize insect hor- mones to produce a new genera- tion of pest control agents without the ecological problems associated w i t h chlorinated hydrocarbons. This discussion taught no labora- tary technique but it did make the subject live-perhaps more worth studying outside of the coercive degree or professional school re- quirement which presently drives the large majority of students into our classes. T h e abundent relevance of chemistry is obvious-from meth- adone to Vitamin C organic chemicals effect every aspect of our lives and it is my job as a teacher to impart this relevance side by side with the precise sub- ject matter in a manner subject to an interactive judgement with my students. We decide together in the classroom interplay how to get the details of the course across. This could be called a living classroom or an organic approach to learn- ing. IT IS TRAGIC but highly rele- vant that a significant portion of what is chemical knowledge has been turned to war - to the Viet- namese War. Chemistry, as prac- ticed in large corporations, using exactly the techniques taught in Chemistry 227, perfect a substance made into a leaf mine, which ac- cording to testimony in the U. S. Senate has no effect on material goods but only the strength to wound or kill living beings. Thus, teaching distillation, re- crystallization, chemical identifi- cation form a direct connection be- tween the horror in Vietnam and the University of Michigan. The war, now highly automated, is fueled by technology. A new army, not of underprivileged dog faces, but of highly paid and highlyre- spectable scientists and engineers supplies the expertise to allow a morally unacceptable situation, that isamericansoldiers face to face with an indigenous rural population, to be transformed into a morally "acceptable" dehu- manized scientifically based on- slaught. THIS scientific expertise which is funneled by our largest corpor- ations, through weapons systems, ducts - products which influence the direction o u r government takes in facing the events around us. The latter is the politics of ex- perience. AGAIN I note: it is the obliga- tion of any teacher to explain the relevance of his or her subject. I therefore permited the Interfaith Council for Peace time for a high- ly relevant one-half hour slide ex- hibition substantially concerned with the connection between our lhrgest scientifically based corpor- ations, hiring our students, and weapons production such as the leaf mine and related materials. What is my crime except to re- veal that aspect of science usually ignored. If I had shown a film from Minneapolis - Honeywell on their peaceful products would I be, without a hearing, summarily suspended from contact with my students? AT A UNIVERSITY which for several years has had a reputation for being liberal, even radical at times, the actions over the past week concerning the sus- pension of Chemistry Prof. Mark Green should arouse the anger of every stu- dent and faculty member. It has gone beyond the question of whether Green should have shown an anti-war slide show to his class. The question is simply, does a profes- sor have the right to determine what material, with certain limitations, of course, he presents to his class. The rele- vancy of the slide show to Green's class is certain to be debated over the coming weeks. But no one can deny Green or any faculty member the right to choose class materials. Acting Chemistry Chairman Thomas Dunn's actions were dictatorial and ex- cessively heavy handed. His first reaction to Green's repeated showing of the slides was to immediate- ly suspend Green. There was no debate as to the relevency of the show, there was no forum with Green's students on their feelings, there was really no dis- cussion before hand at all. DUNN DECIDED to get rid of a trouble maker first and then, maybe, dis- cuss it. He asked LS&A Dean Frank Rhodes to set up a committee to review Green's teaching record but Rhodes wise- ly chose not to get involved in a messy situation. Rhodes threw the ball back to Dunn and told him to set up his own commit- tee. Dunn then tossed the task to the en- tire chemistry faculty. The matter of the review committee itself is a joke. Dunn has already found Green guilty and has already punished Today's staff: News: P. E. Bauer, Gordon Atcheson, Meryl Gordon, Paul Travis Editorial Page: Lindsay Chaney, Fred Shell, Marty Stern Photo Technician: Tom Gottlieb him. Even if the committee reinstated Green and demanded that Dunn apolo- gize, as he should, this incident will have sullied Green's academic standing and cause unneeded campus unrest. If- Dunn wished to get rid of Green, as it appears he does, he could have waited a few months until Green comes up for tenure review. Or he could have called a review hearing before he summarily suspended Green. THESE ACTIONS of Dunn's should make every faculty member fearful of the day when his or her department chairman takes issue with the material taught in' class. Dunn's actions have set an ominous precedent. They clearly point out the power of department chairmen to sus- pend any professor for any flimsy rea- son they can dream up. The faculty and students should speak out strongly and condemn Dunn's to- tally unjustifiable actions. -PAUL TRAVIS Associate Managing Editor A black iaf ia: The media myth THE PUBLIC seems to be infatuated with the idea that organized crime is now run by blacks. Media coverage of small-time hustlers, pushers, and nar- cotic wholesalers who just happen to be black merely lends creedence to this con- cept of a "black mafia." This discrimina- tory belief only serves to perpetuate ill feelings towards the black race, and should be exposed for the blatant mis- conceptions that it presents. One would be led to believe that the black man has finally been accepted into the hierarchy of organized crime. In reality, however, the black man's posi- tion in dope traffic has changed very little in the past decade. He is still subservient to the top men in control who, incidentally, are white. In fact, the black mafioso is nothing more than a pawn. He is skillfully ma- nipulatd into situations where he will be the target of police "crackdowns" or dope busts. He is the patsy to the mafia's games and the scapegoat for the law enforcement's scorn. It is time for the hero worship to end.. The black community must recognize the black racketeers for what they are-per- petrators of the same illegal drug traffic that has plagued the community for years. These people are not heroes. Pro- gress has not been made. Black underworld figures are only be- ing used to more effectively exploit the black community. Only now blacks are aiding in the destruction of their own communities. The evidence is in every large city in America. A giant step back- wards has been taken. -DENISE GRAY Prof. Green to the military arm of the United States, finds its wellspring in ev- ery university community at which scientists work on the cutting edge of their disciplines and teach. coursesilike Chemistry 227. Every day at the University of Michigan the established attitude lends an aura of respectability to these cor- porations and their miltary pro- Editorial Staff SARA FITZGERALD Editor PAT BAUER............Associate Managing Edi LINDSAY CHANEY..............Editorial Direc MARK DILLEN .. ,.. .............. Magazine Edi' LINDA DREEBEN.......Associate Managing Edi TAMMY JACOBS................Managing Edi LORIN LABARDEE.............Personnel Direc ARTHUR LERNER................Editorial Direc! JONATHAN MILLER...............Feature Edi ROBERT SCHREINER............Editorial Direc GLORIA SMITH .. Arts Edil ED SUROVELL ....................... Books Edil PAUL TRAVIS...........Associate Managing Edi NIGHT EDITORS: Robert Barkin, Jan Benedei Chris Parks, Gene Robinson, Zachary Schiller, 2I Stein. COPY EDITORS: Diane Levick, Jim O'Brien, Char Stein, Marcia Zoslaw. DAY EDITORS: Dave Burhenn, Daniel Jacobs, J' Kenteh, Marilyn Riley, Nancy Rosenbaum, Jt Ruskin, Paul Ruskin, Sue Stephenson, Karen Tir lenberg, Becky warner. ASSISTANT .NIGHT EDITORS: Susan Brown, J Frisinger, Matt Gerson, Nancy Hackmeler, Cir Hill, John Marston, Linda Rosenthal, Eric Schoc Marty Stern, David Stoll, Doris Waltz. Letters: To The Daily: DOES A DEPARTMENT chair- man have any responsibility to see thtat stated purposes of his de- partment are fulfilled? I would think so. And it seems to me the acting chairman of the Chemis- try Department, Thomas Dunn, was exercising his responsibility when he relieved Professor Mark Green of his teaching assignment. In Professor Dunn's opinion, what he had witnessed in Professor Green's class was not relevant to the course. Note also that the ac- tion followed a warning. Professor Dunn may have in- correctly exercised his responsi- bility. His judgment may have been in error. A review of his ac- tion is being made by members of the Chemistry Department - that is, by Professor Green's col- leagues. This review is endorsed by the dean of the college and the vice president for academic af- fairs. What is it that angers you? A person in a position of responsi- bility considers the evidence, makes a judgment, acts. He may be wrong. His superiors in the ad- ministrative hierarchy, rather than ,-anricinslv y unnortine or con- I a -l comment 2 A failure at best: The Nixon economic record By GARDNER ACKLEY THERE CAN BE no denying that the economy today is considerably healthier than it was a year ago. It had better be! For a year ago, our economic situation was, all told, worse than at any time since World War De. Thus, you must go all the way back to the days of the Great Depression to find worse 'times. It was Richard Nixon himself who reminded us all of this compari- son, when he described his New Economic Policy of one year ago as the most revolutionary policy change since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. For both Presidents, the times demanded a drastic shift of economic policy - because both times we were on the brink of eco- nomic disaster. And if history assigns - as it does - even part of the blame for the disaster of the Great Depression to the mistaken policies of Herbert Hoover, it will also have to assign much of the blame for the sad state of our economic affairs a year ago to the mistaken policies of Richard Nixon. Given what we have learned about economics since 1929, one can well argue that the Nixon policy failures were far more inexcusable than Hoover's. The Nixon Administration inherited an unemployment rate of 3i%2 per cent. But it then sat back and watched the unemployment rate climb to 6 per cent - where it remained stuck for 18 months, until it finally started to edge down just 5 months ago. The latest figure (August) still shows 5.6 per cent of our work force unemployed. TO BE SURE, the Nixon Administration had also inherited a trouble- some inflation. But it confidently claimed that a little rise - a very little rise - in unemployment would quickly bring that inflation under con- trol. Indeed, it said that the only extra unemployment needed was the unemployment of President Johnson's economic advisers. Instead, it watched the rate of price increase accelerate during most or all of the first two and a half years of its stewardship. Only after the Administra- tion applied the drastic medicine of compulsory wage and price con- trols did the rate of increase of prices clearly begin to slow down. The consequences of this unprecedented combination of high un- employment and rapid inflation has been a reduction of real incomes for many segments of our population. But, as is often the case, the larger part of the cost has been paid by the low-paid, the weak and unorganized, the racial ard ethnic minorities, the young workers seek- ing their first jobs or attempting to get solid starts on career and family. During eight years of Democratic administration, the number of Americans with family incomes in the officially-defined poverty range had fallen every year, from 40 million in 1960 to 24.3 million in 1969. Over the next two years the number in poverty increased by one and a half million. We have heard a lot about the national dishonor of accepting defeat in the War in Vietnam. But not a word about the national dishonor of accepting defeat in the war against poverty - an enemy which still holds as prisoner 10 million American children - six million white and four million black - dooming them to a grossly unequal start in the contest of life. Here, then, is how the Nixon economic record stacks up. In less than four years of the Nixon Administration: * Consumer prices have risen by 18 per cent, about as much as over the entire 8 previous years of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson; a We have sacrificed nearly $175 billioin worth of the production of goods and services that would have been produced if the unemploy- ment rate had stayed at 4 per cent; ,@ There has been the irretrievable loss of more than 6 million man-years of labor, which could have been put to productive use if unemployment had stayed at its level of early 1969; . Total corporate profits after taxes over the four years 1969-1972 will probably actually be less than over the four previous years 1965-68, despite a substantial growth of invested capital between these two periods; this will represent the first four-year stagnation of profits since the 1930's; " The average growth rate of our total output has been about 2/ per cent a year, and of our industrial output less than 1 per cent a year; only the United Kingdom among the major industrial countries has done so poorly; and 0 An Administration which has preached the evils of Federal deficits has in 3 years equalled the combined deficits of the 16 pre- ceding years under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. THIS IS NOT the economic record that the Administration's spokesmen have been beaming to the American public. Rather, we only hear that output is now increasing; that employment is grow- ing and unemployment at last declining; and that inflation is finally slowing down. All of this is true. To which, the American people's reply should be, first, "It's about time things began to improve"; second, "There's still an awfully long way to go"; and, third, "On the basis of your four-year record, why should we trust you to keep the economy moving forward?" It is not even clear to this economist that the improvement which we have finally begun to get in our economic situation owes much to any affirmative action taken by the Administration. About the best one can say is that the Administration has finally stopped doing some of the wrong things - has stopped I SUSPENSION STORY Disturbing the sacred cow By BILL LEAVITT SUSPENSIONS are not unique to universities. In fact history is full of them. Here is a rather ob- scure one I found. "What's the problem Moses?" "I've been suspended as t h e leader of the Children of Israel. They got some new guy to replace me: Aaron-somebody." "Why were you suspended?" "It's a long story. It started when I was working a Bar Mitzvah in Egypt, and I showed a slide pre- sentation on the atrocities the Egyptians were committing - you know, beating the Israelites, mak- ing them work long hours, over- charging them for Mogen David wine, thattkind of stuff." "What happened?" "Well, I got a threatening letter from the Pharaoh, telling me that kind of stuff was better off "out- side the pyramids." I just barely got out of that one; you don't know Green controversy examined To The Daily: THIS LETTER has been origi- nated by the Graduate Student Council in Chemistry in an effort to clarify a few distinct points in the controversy concerning Dr. Mark Green. The salient points are: " Dr. Green has been relieved from his teaching duties in Chem- istry 227 only. * Dr. Green has not been sus- pended by the Chemistry Depart- ment and therefore he retains all rights and privileges offered by the Chemistry Department which include: 1. Free access to the Chemistry building which encompasses free usage of all facilities in the build- ing. 2. Encouragement to continue all research goals and other duties other than teaching Chem. 227. 3. Continuation of full salary ang university benefits. ! Dean Rhodes requested that a Departmental Committee be con- vened as soon as possible to re- views the events which led to the relief of Prof. Green's teaching duties in Chem. 227. The Chemis- try Faculty elected three repre- sentatives on Thurs. Oct. 12, which includet ten rnea nA A non- follow the injuiry in all stages and will issue further statements as the occasion presents itself. -Graduate Student Council Chemistry Department Oct. 12 ° To The Daily: THE PRESENT efforts by Dean Rhodes and Professor Dunn to es- tablish an advisory committee made up of both tenured and non- tenured faculty is another exam- ple of the strong using members of a less powerful group to disci- pline themselves. The junior mem- bers of the faculty should realize that this committee can also be turned against them and, should the commitee advise to re-instate the faculty member in question, the tenured chairman, like Dunn, can overrule the advisory commit- tees recommendation and fire the dissenting faculty member. Junior faculty should realize they are powerless people being used to legitimize this kangaroo court. The junior faculty should unite against being used this way - they should refuse to serve on or vote for this or like committees. In the short run they should also begin to unite with other unten- ured fncnlty to consider a faculty institutionalized domestic racism and repression etc;. -Rich Levy Joe Goldensonr Oct. 12 'Butterflies' To The Daily: I FEEL THE review of "But- terflies" by Richard Glatzer (Daily Oct. 10) is a most unfortunate ex- pression of negative attitudes to- ward the handicapped rampant on this campus and in society in gen- eral. If The Michigan Daily were available in braille, Talking Book or on tape, the "Don Bakers" (male and female) would be able to respond for themselves and as- sure Mr. Glatzer that they can in- deed move in their apartments with "ease"; "unselfconsiously. joke about" . . . (their) disabili- ties (many do not consider their disability a handicap!); and "walk to the store" and "walk back from the store" independently. Instead of expressing negative views about the disabled, Glatzer and other Daily writers might join forces with the newly formed SGC Committee to aid the handicapped infahtin dcmnnti-nn prnn what a life saver some of those plagues were. Too bad they messed up that last plague." "What do you mean?" "They were supposed to give the first born Egyptian sons horrible body odor, but some of the angels misunderstood and killed them. It worked anyway." "Then what happened?" "WELL, EVERYTHING w e n t fine until we got to the desert. I was speaking on the proper way to dress when entering the Prom- ised Land, and I tried presenting the Ten Commandments. That's what got me suspended." "I don't understand." "Well some of the tribal leader of the Children of Israel decided that the Ten Commandments were "irrelevant" to the desert situation, and that I was presenting them 'under the pretext' of leading everyone to the Promised Land." "But aren't the Ten Command- ments going to be pretty import- ant?" "Yes, they are very important, but it's hard for them to compete against Golden Calves. Golden Cal- ves are really popular this exodus, and the Ten Commandments for- bid Golden Calves." "What is a Golden Calf?" "It's a metaphor." "Well anyway, isn't there any- one else who will present the Ten Commandments?" "Oh yes, there are the ten lost tribes. But you see, my tribe is especially concerned with making Golden Calves. And besides, not everyone wants the Ten Command- ments. I hear some of those guys from Judea are really into wife swapping." 'You mean you got suspended be- cause you disagreed with the idea of Golden Calves?" "Well, I don't totally disagree- .I do like pork chops. But t h e Children resent my irreverence."