y, October 13, 1977-The Michigan Daily
I
£ dian.Dati
Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
1. LXXXVIII, No. 31 News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Trax credits woud make
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S egem r ces l
Beyond the
Bakke case
By GALE SUMMERFIELD
and RANDY SCHWARTZ
Recently, several people have
submitted articles with differing
opinions on the Bakke Case. But
no one has yet provided the
statistics on the current status of
minorities in the medical profes-
sion, or questioned the over-all
exclusiveness of medical school
admissions. These are two points
we would like to address so as to
show the importance of defeating
the Bakke decision, and of pro-
tecting and expanding programs
for affirmative action.
To what extent have such pro-
grams succeeded in correcting
centuries of injustice? Is it now
TAKE A STROLL some day
down the corridors of the pres-
tigous University Hospital. If af-
firmative action programs have
actually gone too far, and mi-
norities are being given a "free
ride" into the medical profession
through "reverse discrimina-
tion," then why are their num-
bers there so insignificant? Why
are they so better represented on
the custodial as opposed to the
medical staff?
The thousands of people who
have stfruggled in past decades
specifically to achieve minority
quotas would look rather
disfavorably upon their repeal.
Without quotas, the privileged
can judge applicants according to
pushed by Senators Packwood and
Daniel Moynihan (D-N.Y.), has come
under attack in recent days, further
threatening its passage in this session
of Congress.
SOME OPPONENTS of the tuition
tax credit plan say that Congress
could aid financially strapped students
more directly - not through the tax
credit system -- but through an al-
ready existing program of grants from
the Department of Health, Education
and Welfare (HEW). Instead of initiat-
ing an entirely new program, it is ar-
gued, Congress could simply raise the
number and level of the HEW grants,
which are based on family income. But
as is now a common view, HEW is
already bogged down with bureacratic
paper work. A new influx of grant ap-
plications would simply create a moun-
tainous overload for the department.
Imagine the back up there would be if
everyone who would have been eligible
for the tax credit program applied for'
a Basic Educational Opportunity
Grant (BEOG). The tuition tax credit
plan would relieve the bureacracy in
that portion of our government,
allowing HEW to concentrate on mat-
ters more basic to human survival.
The BEOG program is not made to
serve the volume of people who would
otherwise benefit from a tuition reim-
bursement plan.
The argument we are likely to hear
most when the tax credit bill comes
under scrutiny this fall will be that the
plan's estimated annual cost of $4.7
billion renders it unaffordable. But
think about that. This is a bill that
would drastically reduce the financial
burdens on any student comtemplating
college. It would practically guarantee
a higher education for many members
of low-income families. It is not a han-
dout. Rather, it helps offset today's
over-inflated costs of education and-
rekindles that old saw about a "land of
equal opportunity."
stances. To repeal quotas would
be to repeal the gains in social
justice made in the 1960's.
WE MIGHT well ask why
Bakke is directing his suit again-
st minority admissions instead of
against the special admissions of
less qualified students whose
families donate large sums of
money. The real indication of
one's potential as a doctor is a
history of using to greatest social
advantage the tools with which
one finds oneself surrounded, and
a commitment to provide good
health care to the people of one's
community. These are traits
which have been shown in par-
ticular by minorities.I
Allan Bakke, a 34-year-old
NASA engineer, was rejected at
each of the 14 medical schools to
which he applied in 1973 and 1974.
Despite his privileged prep-
school background and under-
graduate training, Bakke's'
scores on standardized entrance
exams were not adequate. Yet
because they were higher than a
few accepted minority students,
he was encouraged by a UC-Davis
administrator to file suit
charging "reverse discrim-
ination." Thus, an individ-
ual who repeatedly failed to
convert past privilege into future
privilege in a prestigous institu-
tion, is moved by certain elemen-
ts within that institution to turn
around and challenge those appli-
cants who struggled against even
greater obstacles. There is some-
thing truly sad about this victim
of an educational system which
provides all too few opportunities
for people to go to school in the
first place being deluded into
thinking that others victimized
by that same system are to blame
for his misfortune.
REGARDED in that light, one
sees that the problem is not sim-
ply that minorities are underrep-
resented in positions of privilege,
but that positions of great social
need are positions of privilege in
the first place. "We're not run-
ning an admissions committee.
We're running a rejections com-
mittee" says Dr. Colin Campbell
of the University Medical
School.s Each year, the Davis
medical school admits but 100
students of the thousands who
apply. While the people of our
nation cry out for decent health,
care,'medical, school admissions
policies are still determined by
what will profit the rich and the
powerful. Their schools remain
structured in such a way that
they can accommodate only a
select few students, and therefore
the social benefits accrue only to
an elite. As with all similar in-
stances of economic injustice, the
elite attempts to divide the dis-
contented populace by pitting one
group against another. But all
these groups alike are victims of
a lack of popular control over the
distribution of economic re-
sources. And as one way of di-
verting attention from that state
of affairs, the elite dupes people
into believing that one or another
race is receiving unfair advant-
age. The Bakke Case is a typical
,case of the ruling class trying to
cut back on the gains made by
minorities, and incite prejudice
on the part of whites. The Bakke
Case is a typical example of insti-
tutionalized racism.
Racism is not the product of
evil minds. It is the product of a
system that needs to keep people
divided, and keep minorities sub-
jugated so as to be able to make
more profit off their lower-priced
labor. If we want to destroy:
racism, we must remake the
society which creates it. The
widespread desire of youth to
study medicine should be trans--
lated into an effort to convert'
universities from exclusive cor-
porations into community cen-
ters accessible to large numbers'
of all nationalities. If we need
more and better medical care, if
we need more doctors and other"
medical workers, we should fight
for an expansion of admissions
and to get schools to establish
programs geared toward cheap.
medical care rather than towards-
overly specialized training.
But, in the short run, we must
not fail to recognize the critical
importance of affirmative action
in compensating for historical
oppression and allowing for op-
portunities for minorities that
previously didn't exist. Even
though affirmative action
programs have barely begun to
correct racial discrimination, we
cannot, in good conscience, sur-
render the'ground that has been
gained in this struggle. Let us
therefore defend these programs.
Unite to defeat Bakke!
1. Medical Committee for Human Rights,
The Bakke Case. pp. 1-2.
2. Fight Back (newspaper of Revolutionary
Student Brigade),10/7, p.5.
3. MCHR. p 8.
4. MCHR, p.5.
5. MCHIR, p.8.
6. Michigan Daily,10/2/'77, p..
Gale Summerfield and Ran-
dy Schwartz are members of
the Revolutionary Student
Brigade.
AP Photo
SPECTATORS LINE up to get seats at the Supreme Court in
Washington yesterday, where justices heard arguments for the Bakke
case. Only about 50 persons were allowed inside the chamber.
desirable to institute "color-
blind" admissions to medical
schools? "The facts shine a lot on
the answer to these questions ...
While the physician/population
ratio for the U.S. is 1/700, the
ratios of minority physicians to
minority populations are roughly
as follows: Black 1/3800, Native
American 1/20,000, and Chicano
1/30,333. The Black physician/-
population ratio has remained at
1/4000 since the 1930's,", The
claim that affirmative action has
gone too far becomes ludicrous.
their own capricious standards,
and they can do so under the
guise of pure meritocracy. A
Lawyers' Guild survey of more
than 100 law schools indicates
that minority enrollment would
plunge by 75 per' cent if there
were no affirmative action pro-
grams.2 Affirmative action,
which is but'a first step in com'
batting inequality, insists that
we must actively bring oppressed
peoples into the mainstream and
judge them by standards appro-
priate to their historical circum-
Letters to-
The Daily
Editorial positions represent
a consensus of
The Daily Editorial Staff
Letters should be typed and limited
to 400 words. The Doily reserves the
right to edit letters for length and
grammar.
TALL ZY 'J1U F 772
v ,Y / O2S Evl29/l/r
To The Daily:fader plan
If the hotly debated Fader plan
had passed the LSA faculty vote
last spring every incoming LSA
freshperson might have had
three required courses of English
composition to look forward to in
completing his or her degree. The
plan was not passed, but is pres-
ently being reworked by the Eng-
lish Composition Board (ECB)
and an advisory committee both
chaired by English Prof. Daniel
Fader. For the past weeks the
LSA student government has
been trying to secure student rep-
resentatio on this committee'
which would so greatly affect the
undergraduate curriculum.
In early September, Dean Billy
Frye requested of the student
government three to five nomina-
tions from which Dean Frye him-
self would choose a representa-
tive to the ECB advisory com-
mittee. The request for a single
representative to a committee of
twenty faculty members, a com-
mittee which is merely advising
another all faculty hoard hardly
shows a desire for or even the
recognition of the right to student
participation in the English com-
position question.
The student government has
objected to this limited represen-
tation in a letter to the dean and
has tried repeatedly to meet with
Dean Frye to discuss the issue.
He has agreed to one more stu-
dent seat on the twenty-two mem-
ber committee and to eliminate
the administration level screen-
ing, but he has failed to find the
time for a meeting. The reluctan-
ce of Dean Frye points to the
issue of overall student represen-
tation at the university.
Curriculum Committee, the
English Composition Board, and
the recent proposal of the Ad-
ministrative Board to initiate a
Freshman Seminar program
next fall are a few of the curricu-
lum innovations that will affect
LSA undergraduates.
For all these changes the
process, as reported in the Daily,
is basically the same. These
committees discuss problems in
the college and work their recom-
mendations into proposals that
are presented to the faculty. The
crucial presentation, however, is
before the LSA Executive Com-
mittee.
The Executive Committee
meets behind closed doors and
does not make the minutes from
those meetings available. Some
of the advisory committees do
have student seats. But student
representatives generally obser-
ve that the real policy decisions
and analysis go on in private
meetings and discussions bet-
ween administration members
before even hearing the views of
the committees.
The need for a joint effort of
students and faculty in
evaluating the LSA undergradu-
ate education has been establish-
ed through the advocacy of past
student governments and student
groups on campus. Has the ad-
ministration forgotten the steps it
has taken towards a more equal
representation of students?
The Student Government in
anger does not want to point
fingers however. If the faculty
committees are truly concerned
with the education the under-
graduate is receiving today, if the
experience of the student is really
the basis for the changes in re-
of situations can forget that ob-
jectivity is not merely the result
of a trained and intelligent mind,
but the result of subjective view-
points working over an issue. ,
We hate to see the same close-
mindedness and political exclu-
sivity forming without checking
the policies that will determine
the education of every LSA un-
dergraduate.
carter
To The Daily:
I would like to express several
disagreements with the political
cartoon on the editorial page of
today's Daily (Sept. 30). (The ar-
tist is Jules Feiffer, Field News-
paper Syndicate-Ed. note.)
I almost refrained from re-
sponding at all, not wanting to
waste energy on such a display of
political ignorance or bias.
I do think it is appropriate to
criticize in a rational, construc-
tive manner, but much of the an-
ti-Carter reaction spewed out on
the editorial page of the Daily
from day to day is as incred-
ibly unfactual and misleading as
it is distasteful and amateur.
FIRST OF ALL, Carter does
not support any bill or amend-
ment forbidding anyone, rich or
poor, to have abortions. As far as
government funding of abortions
is concerned, why should he im-
pose upon taxpayers the respon-
sibility of this when many if not
most people have doubts as to the
moral value of this practice? (I
personally am skeptical of a view
that supports human liberty,
equal rights for all and peace,
and next is crying out for money
to perform a very ugly and very
violent act upon human nature.)
The accusation that Carter ac-
cepts unemployment at high
levels is pretty untenable since he
has already supported more
labor legislation than the Con-
gress has been willing to enact.
Considering the recent advan
ces with the Soviets the charge
that he is allowing the arms race
to continue is totally wrong and
also indicative that the artist is
not very aware of political even-
ts.
The last jab at Carter is like-
wise, ill-founded since he has
been putting pressure on several
governments, indiscriminate of
their political ideology.
THE ATTEMPT to picture
Jimmy Carter as the typical two=
faced, uncaring southern Baptist
bigot is unfair, totally un-
justifiable and indicative of a new
breed of bigot just as dangerous
and irresponsible as the Phyllis
Schaffly/Anita Bryant/Bill Buck-
ley type. Naturally they have a
common enemy - reason,
justice, honesty and people like
Carter whom they have a pecu-
liar need and fancy to deprecate.
Methinks people in glass houses
should not throw stones.
Arthur Arroyo
September 30
LIFE
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