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