a0
OPINION
Page 4
Thursday, November 5, 1981
-I
The Michigan Daily
a0
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
When will Shapiro and Frye
explain 'smaller and better'?
Vol. XCII, No. 49
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
A
A noble effort
MORE THAN 400 letters deploring
federal budget cuts in financial
9aid will be sent to several United States
senators thanks to the efforts of the
Michigan Student Assembly and 400
students who were willing to take the
time to write a few pages.
A bill is currently in the Senate
which would cut an additional $562
million crippling an already weakened
federal financial aid program. U.S.
senators should be advised that
thgousands of students-their con-
stituents-are dependent on this aid as
the only means for them to attend a
college or university.
=The letter-writing campaign was one
way of letting the senators know that
students are indeed worried about the
pending budget cuts. But while the 400 .
letters were a noble effort on the part
a
Encouragin
F INALLY, there's some indisputably
good news coming from the
Selective Service Administration.
':Selective Service reported on
Tpesday that at least 25 percent of the
ten who were i'equired by law to
r egister for the draft this year have not
4One so.
:=The report was justifiably welcomed
4, many anti-draft activists. It reaf-
rtm many of their arguments that the
craft' is. neither a practical nor a
prudent way to show national strength.
Of the approximately 1.2 million men
who were supposed to register for the
draft this year, about 300,000 did not.
That brings the total number of non-
rpgistrants to more than 800,000. And
thiese figures are from statistics
T leased by the Selective Service Ad-
r inistration, which is notoriously
nreliable in estimating the number of
eople resisting its dictates. The num-
r of people failing to register could
ell be higher.
Selective Service, predictably, has
ggested that the number of men who
ave not registered is insignificant. It
i; just "taking a little time" for the
new registration procedures to start
--
r.
r,
f,
I'l " ~ §1t.J ri 1 t3 .wSt_
of MSA and the students who wrote
them, it is doubtful that any of the
senators to whom they were addressed
will take the time to read them-or
even know that they were sent.
For instance, Michigan Democratic
Sens. .Carl Levin and Donald Riegle
will be sent 200 and 60 letters respec-
tively. Some staff aide will type a
syrupy reply into a computer and
everyone who wrote a letter will
receive it.
That is" not to say, however, that
MSA and the students who wrote the
letters were foolish in doing so. They
have shown a willingness to fight for
the financial well-being of students.
And maybe, by some fluke, Sens.
Riegle and Levin will listen to what
they have to say-but they shouldn't
count on it.
g resistance
working well, one official suggested.
While no one is suggesting that all
who have not registered are protesting
the draft, in at least one sense it
doesn't matter. Those who are failing
to register out of ignorance are helping
those who are purposely not
registering.
The massive failure to register rein-
forces a very practical problem with
draft registration. There is simply no
way that the government could even
prosecute, let alone imprison, the
800,000 people who are in violation of
the registration law.
, One of the justifications President
Carter used to push registration
through Congress was that registration
would show foreign powers something
of America's might. But instead, it's
sending foreign powers very different
messages. It's showing them that the
draft laws in the United States are
meeting with such massive resistance
that the government cannot possibly
prosecute all who disobey conscription
laws. Rather than demonstrating some
sort of mass jingoistic machismo,
registration is showing foreign powers
that the government program is sub-
stantially out of step with the populace.
By Jamie Moeller
In June of 1980, University President Har-
old Shapiro introduced the term "smaller and
better" into the University community's
vocabulary. Since that time Shapiro and Vice
President for Academic Affairs Billy Frye
have actively pursued the philosophy behind
the term, but have neglected to answer
several important questions.
In response to the economic hardships
facing the University, Shapiro said the
University must become smaller, but at the
same time, better.
To accomplish this, Shapiro and Frye
decided it would be necessary to eliminate or
drastically reduce some units within the
University while actually bolstering others.
This has been termed "selective program
reduction'' and '"discontinuance."~
THIS MEANS that units deemed to be "cen-
tral to the mission of the Univer-
sity"-especially those units which are
probable revenue producers-will be
strengthened. The manner in which "smaller
and better" has manifested over the past year
indicates that the ideas of selective program
discontinuance and centrality may mean
trading off quality teaching and education for
more profitable research.
The potential destructiveness of "smaller
and better" became evident last January
when the LSA administration announced it
would eliminate the geography department.
This was closely followed by the targeting
of four other units-Recreational Sports, the
Extension Service, Michigan Media, and the
Center for Research, Learning, and
Teaching-for massive budget reductions. All
four units were eventually cut dramatically,
with the Extension Service being virtually
eliminated.
MORE RECENTLY, THE physical therapy
department has been targeted for discon-
tinuance. Although there are two other
physical therapy programs in the state-at
Oakland University and Wayne State Univer-
sity-they do not share the same academic
standing as the University program. WSU's
program is currently under probation and
Oakland will not graduate a physical therapy
class until next year.
The program also provides marketable
skills to many students. All of the above
programs are similar in that they produce
relatively little revenue through research or
other means. They thus become vulnerable to
cuts made for purely financial reasons rather
than academic merit.
In the eyes of President Shapiro and Vice
President Frye, "smaller and better" also
means a smaller but better paid faculty. This
has been demonstrated in two ways.
First, Frye ordered a faculty hiring freeze
across the University. This substantially
decreased the number of faculty at the
University. With no public plans to decrease
enrollment, there will obviously be an in-
creased'student-faculty ratio and classrooms
will become even larger than they already
are.
Secondly, in hopes of raising faculty
salaries, the administration has increased its
emphasis on research. Administrators even
hired George Gamota from the Pentagon to
procure Defense Department research
monies for faculty. Plans are also underway
to establish a private research corporation to
market University research. This means that
even more faculty attention will be focused on
research at the expense of teaching and
education. Shapiro and Frye have left too
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
1
;,,
,;
f
,, .
,. ,
.
'
r
,
y r
.n 1
{ r
r.
Ij i
/1.
/ ', /
. * ° '
G
r
=.
'I
1 /,, '
f, f1/ ,.. ,''.
I
.V
1
If
t
I' :.
C
1iO
v
F
M
n
N
M
3k
k
i
4
X
\
F
w 1
C
,
1
.,.
/
0
4
7 ,;yW r
.
wa
- ::<:x
. '
, ;'
many questions unanswered.
What will the University look like in five to
10 years? Will it indeed be smaller and better
or will it be elitist and less diverse? Will we
become a research institution instead of a
learning institution?
Specific questions must be addressed:
What will happen to the size of enrollment?
Will we keep the same number of students
while decreasing the number of faculty? If we
lower enrollment, which students-in-state,
minority-will be excluded? What will hap-
pen to affirmative action-will we continue to
recruit qualified minority students and
faculty or will it be another casualty of
"smaller and better?"
Other major questions that remain include:
What units will be deemed "not central" to
the University and thus eliminated? Will the
trend of eliminating social sciences and
humanities (e.g., geography) while bolstering
research-oriented hard sciences continue? If
so, is there a future for a liberal arts
education at the University?
Who will make these decisions regarding
the future of the University? In the past it has'
been the central administration-Shapiro and
Frye-with the help of individual deans who
alone have made the decisions. The views of
students and faculty have virtually been
ignored in this process. How long will this
continue?
If we stand by and allow Frye and Shapiro
solely to dictate the future of the University,
we are mortgaging our educations. It is
student tuition money that is paying for this
ill-conceived policy of "smaller and better. '
We must not allow this to continue. The ad-
ministration should beheld accountable for
their actions. Students and faculty should call
Shapiro, Frye, and the dean of their college
and enforce their right to straight answers to
these most serious questions.
Moeller is a member of the LSA student
government executive council.
41
', cig f t,
'at
~seJ, ~'i
Stop the Reagan war drive!
To the Daily:
At the Oct. 17 Michigan Student
Assembly meeting, a McCar-
thyite motion was passed to
strangle Spartacus Youth
League funding for its class
series on Marxism.
The author of this motion,
"progressive" Valerie Mims
claimed that the SYL was
"disruptive" because it had
initiated a principled united front
picket around the demands
"Drive the Defense Intelligence
Agency off Campus! " and "Down
With Reagan's- Anti-Soviet Cold
War Drive!" to protest the MSA
endorsed and funded forum
"What is National Security" on
Oct. 8-10.
Disruptive? Let's review the
bloody exploits of some of the an-
ti-Soviet imperialist butchers
who spoke at this "neutral"
Congress on the cheapest way to
attain nuclear first strike
capability against the USSR.
Mass murder is not only "disrup-
tive," it's not debatable!
The MSA vote was in fact a
referendum against socialist ac-
tion against the U.S. military on
campus. Mims, and her cohort
Tim Feeman of the pro-Moscow
Young Workers Liberation
League think they can further
their class-collaborationist
dream of "peace and detente" by
funding the anti-Soviet war-
makers and repressing the SYL,
which defends the USSR against
U.S. imperialism.
By endorsing the original
debate which is being hosted at
other universities, these two,
along with the majority of other
MSAers have made it safe for
Reagan's military to open one
question. The University is no
ivory tower. Universities are the
ideological and technical training
grounds for the imperialist ruling
class. By censoring socialists
who oppose imperialism's at-
tempts to roll back back the gains
of the October Revolution the
MSA is making the political
climate safe for the reintroduc-
tion of overt military think tanks
and military recruitment.
The SYL as a socialist youth
group is opposed to all forms of
U.S. imperialism, from El
Salvador to Afghanistan. We
fight for socialist revolution
which will put an end to im-
perialist war once and for all.
Down with Reagan's anti-
Soviet war drive!
-Michele Lubke
Spartacus Youth League
November 2
al
q:
Lette
typed,
margin,
signed1
rs
to the Daily
should
be
triple-spaced, with inch
s. All submissions must be
by the individual author(s).
mm
AIIi
- _ _ _ 1