OPINION *1 i Emtudns a nes tia n Edited and managed by students of The University of Michigan Vol. XCII, No. 72 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Disenfranchising alumni Sunday, December 6, 1981 Feiffer M3 rHlJRI65 is W AV HE MICHIGAN State University Board of Trustees is really one to cut off its nose to spite its face. In the midst of one of the state's worst dinan- cial crises when state subsidies to higher education are cut almost mon- thly, they voted to disenfranchise that university's alumni association. ,'he board voted 6-2 Friday to sever tijs with the 32,000-member Michigan State alumni association. Now, in ad-- dition to receiving fewer funds from the state of Michigan, MSU is going to have to attempt to wrench donations frpm an alienated and unorganized alumni. Conflict between the university's administration and the alumni association first arose last year when ti group's president refused to resign upbn MSU President M. Cecil Mackey's request. Battles have con- tinued to brew between the two groups siice that initial incident. The board's finial action Friday unfortunately rgpresented its unyielding support of The Michigan Daily Mackey and the university's disregard for its alumni. So now, not only will MSU have trouble garnering support from a disenfranchised alumni, it may also lose support in the state legislature. Legislators have already indicated that this rash move may result in less sympathy from a vote-conscious legislator. Further, in the long run, this move could harm higher education across the state. The fewer dollars Michigan State receives from alumni, the more it will require from the state to main- tain its programs at current levels thus potentially putting the squeeze on available funds for other state in- stitutions. But more than that, the move has represented another power play by Mackey that has been backed by the MSU Board of Trustees. It seems that the MSU administration-at least Mackey-is more interested in short term vendettas than long range plan- ning. 'T. WM.~... i eeA CRTu S E W0AT 3 o'ss a u H6 v eA. n . 2 w CAT~aI°) 5O ~E U W OcMrr %4 ~1. i OOTl-AWA 4 li "z Fl 1. .1 PJA i -U.e (raTr JSt LETTERS TO THE DAILY: WCBN offers students HE Fath orgy $4 m per year nirtent th liR4 pock ut the elijninati tl small argumen present rdealing S The m to suppc r4eords ptiticaI Te Unite tl, recip nment ha p&oject editing, a of Thoma Lasty reieived the fede that mo historian of Jeffer The ad tIat the 1istorica Qmmis te mon i-recis wanted, for unob wheir cas Rereading Jefferson SO-CALLED "Founding But the administration's Hers Projects" account for justification for eliminating the illion in federal expenditures program - aside from being flawed - sllpotfedeaepesdo oer is a gross misreading of Jefferson's : small potatoes for a gover philosophy of government. at sometimes handles billions Although Jefferson did indeed argue etchainid for limiting governmental intrusion in.- n administration has propose to the lives of private citizens, he also ing the projects, and, despite recognized the value and necessity of t budgets of the programs, the governmental support of education. He its used by the administration was, in fact, one of the first in America some fascinating and .' g. sone as inatito argue that public education itself is g ironies. necessary for the development of a oney from the project is used strong democracy. irt scholarly inquiry into the One of the most important aspects of left behind by some of the education is scholarly research; it leaders of the early days of provides a training ground for future ed States. In past years,. one of teachers and increases the insight one aients of funds from the gover- generation has into the actions of as been a Princeton University another. Tools for research, such as a which has been, compiling, compilation of the writings of Jeffer- and publishing all the writings son, enable scholars to learn more as Jefferson. about the nature of government and year, the Princeton project about how to attack and solve the 160 percent of its funds from problems facing our society. ral program, and a cutoff of Jefferson once wrote, "Religion, rney could severely hinder morality, and knowledge being as' efforts to finally compile all necessary to good government and the son's works. happiness of mankind, schools and the [ministration, however, claims means of education shall forever be elimination of the National encouraged." al Publications and Records The words are from the Northwest sion - the bureau which gives Ordinance, and are carved in stone ey to the Princeton project - above the entrance to Angell Hall. ely what Jefferson would have They stand as eloquent - if unheeded and they cite Jefferson's calls - advise from one of America's most trusive government to support perceptive presidents to one of e. America's least. To the Daily: There are so many problems with the Daily's Dec. 1 "review"~ of WCBN, that one wonders whether to even bother writing at all. The author so ignores the un- derlying questions and manipulates and tangles the superficial ones that a letter the length of the article would not do the subject justice. As a current staff member at WCBN, however, I feel the need (and enough resentment) to write. I will attempt to skip the more superficial and journalistic questions and will try to encap- sulate those with which I do deal. Some of the underlying problems with Ms. Kramer's ar- ticle, which she fails to confront, are as follows: First, WCBN does not sell its product, as do most newspapers and radio. The nature of the non- commercial world is different from the one with which Ms. Kramer is apparently used to dealing. WCBN has no adver- tisers to please, does not have to cater to a market or entice large numbers of listeners in-order to gain -or retain advertisers. In short, we do not have to "give the listeners what they want," or what we think they want, or what most of them will settle for. This opens up nearly limitless possibilities, but more importan- tly, it allows us to be sincere, if only in our belief that what we broadcast is worthwhile. WCBN's non-commercial status is also in a sense responsible for the author's ability to speculate on whejher the station "has any listeners at all.": WCBN cannot measure its listenership by the number of products it sells, and is not rated as to its "share" on the listening "market." If it-is necessary WCBN can, however, compare its listenership to other non-commercial stations: in its last fund-raiser WCBN raised $8,000 with a potential listenership of under 100,000. Other public radio stations with potential listener- ships ten times as great (and usually more) do not collect nearly a tenth of the comparable multiple in donations. Second, radio is not edited in the way Ms. Kramer' seems to imply it should be. In live radio there is no time to stop and evaluate the product before it is revealed, the way there is in print. Radio, in a sense, edits it- self from moment to moment in the programmer's head. Further, the power of editing is not con- centrated in the hands of just a few people. WCBN has some 60- odd stuff members, and no mat- ter how much training a DJ is given, moment to moment the air signal is always in his or her han- ds. A great deal of responsibility is necessarily given to many. Third, WCBN traffics in sound. Every word (or sound) broad- cast, in addition to having a literal meaning as a sound, has an aesthetic value/quality about it, unlike print, where the word appears exactly the same every time it is printed. If we, in this sense, equate the usage of sounds on the radio to images in print (rather than words), criticizing radio for playing the sound of crickets would be like criticizing the print media for published an esoteric painting or photograph. WCBN present pieces of music. Do we criticize an art gallery because it exhibits paintings unlike those we are accustomed to? For showing Picasso or Kollwitz rather than Rembrandt? Music, like art, speaks many dif- ferent languages. WCBN presen- ts the entire spectrum. Ms. Kramer would do well, at the out- set of her article, to admit what few languages she Kramer's criticise never admitted, b from the headline word) is entirely th expects something py to find, instea else. The' existence of implies its opposi natives. Giving a alternative not only see what might be, k us to see what is mo giving it greater Where most radio WCBN takes up. media declares it tive," WCBN admit tivity, and by doing the cloak which dec reality, removes th4 sort of psychologic what we recognize political viewpoints Lastly, Ms. Kran wantsus to believe th of crickets is OK, t and-a-half hours, probably lost a liste tide in the Daily gc long, or is about some sincerity.. . speaks. Ms. we are not interested, do we stop n (which is reading the Daily. Not unless, ut obviously apparently, we are so short- to the last sighted (or accustomed to for- at of one who mula) as to not realize that the and is unhap- next article may well be quite dif- d, something ferent from the one we are reading. every.thing For those readers who did not te, or alter- get the message .from Ms. voice to the Kramer's article (and likely you y helps us to did not), more than anything else but also helps the people at WCBN believe in re clearly, by music, in the power of sounds, definition. and in the joy of discovering new leaves off, music. It is a station which Where most thoughtfully considers and self "objec- arranges a greater variety of ts its subjec- music than you will hear on any g so removes other radio station, and is willing lares a single to take a few risks in the spirit of e element of a discovery. al coercion in The Daily has a long history of as essentially attacks on WCBN, which I will not go into here. Sufficedit to say ner seems to that we have never had a "fair hat 20 minutes reading" from the Daily. An in- but after two- formed reader will look to the WCBN has pages of The Ann Arbor News ener. If an ar- and Ann Arbor Observer for such oes on for too things. ething in which -Michael Kopka December 2 .. . and on-air training Improving the Union "' II 0 \ To the Daily: As a member of a task force working on making the Michigan Union more of a "student union," I am greatly encouraged by the steps being taken by the Union in this direction. A $4.6 million renovation will start to take place this summer and, in time, will strive to make the Union a hub of activity. This stands in sharp contrast to the pass-through center it is at present. The proposed changes such as creating a food concession in the basement along with retail establishments, will surely at- tract many students. Unfor- tunately, these changes will not take effect until the Fall of 1983. The# U-Club has already been quite successful at drawing students to the Union, but more changes can be made in the short run. The Union officials, we have found, are very interested in hearing from students about what changes should take place. I encourage students to write to Frank Cianciola (Union Direc- tor) or Gary Trier (Director of Food Services) about what they would like to see, not just in the distant future but right now. These people are very receptive to student viewpoints. -Gordy Erley December 3 To the Daily: This letter is in reply to the Daily's article about WCBN and WJJX. Basically, the article was very informative, but there are a few points that need clarification. I work at the Campus Broad- casting Network, and I have listened to numerous college and commercial radio stations in more than one market. First, while the writer's generalization that one either loves WCBN or hates it sounds dramatic, I don't think it is necessarily true. Most people listen to several radio stations, and I believe that most people like certain aspects of WCBN's programming-for instance, the musical tastes of-certain freeform DJ's, certain weekend block programs, Jazz, 'Round Mid- night, news, and public affairs programs-and dislike some aspects. WCBN certainly does care about what the listeners want to hear, and we encourage feedback, either by calling our studio line or by writing us at 530 Student Activities Building. My opinion is that WCBN's programming is the result of the extremely tight programming of Detroit/Ann Arbor area com- mercial radio stations; in a looser market such as Boston, New York, or Los Angeles, a station like WCBN wouldn't seem as unique. I can't understand why the University doesn't condone or even embrace the idea that their radio station is not only unique, but necessary in this radio market. The author's section on WJJX seemed biased against top-40, so I want to clarify why WJJX is dif- ferent from the other "top-40".0 stations. Indeed, we are top-60; we have a long rotation, i.e. son gs are repeated less often than on most radio stations. But "top-60" also means that we play occasional album cuts or songs that are doing well on FM rock stations or soul stations but don't make top-40 airplay. Fur- thermore, we take chances on songs; we've broken songs that didn't make top-40 until as much as two months later. Any WJJX DJ can be on the music staff, and this is a great opportunity to learn how real radio stations decide what songs to play. I believe that the most effective way to learn about radio at the network is to , work simultaneously on AM and FM.'- AM train the DJ in vocal style segues (music mixes), stop sets, and the music clock, while FM encourages the DJ to explore dif= ferent types of music and to program his own stop sets, select his own vocal style, etc. Freeform allows the DJ to program as he sees fit and to learn as much as he is motivated to learn. The network also trains people for production, news, and public affairs. The Campus Broadcasting Network gives people real ex- perience in radio that the Univer- sity has been either unwilling or unable to provide. --Chuck Azer December 2 9 OSU deserved to win To the Daily: After the woeful loss on Nov. 21 to Ohio State, post-game reaction from fans, players, coaches, etc. - nit.iaA nr~n .want 4c n~n c '"WP be no winner or loser. The facts are that Ohio State's defense played superbly and that Michigan's offense was the pits. T !~ IL... 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