4
OPINION
1
Page 4
Wednesday, November 19, 1980
The Michigan Daily,
.
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
In Defense of Don Canham
Vol. XCI, No. 66
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
The Free Press eats crow
I T STARTED out just like the per-
fect "old person bilked of life
savings" story-the same human inter-
est feature countless editors have put on
countless Page Ones because it sells
countless papers.
The despairing, weeping face of
Peter Muzyka, a partially deaf 91-
year-old Polish immigrant who was
robbed last week of $16,000 by two con
artists, stared out forlornly from the
front page of Friday's Detroit Free
Press.
Now I have only my $300 monthly
pension to live on, the old man cried.
The Free Press and the local
television media milked the story for
all it was worth. Following faithfully
the journalistic formula for these types
of stories, the newspaper set up a fund
for donations to the old man and prin-
ted the address. Lo and behold, the
"ruined old an" angle quickly shifted
to the "ge erous citizens pour out
money" angle.
And speaking of milk, one donor sent
in $1 and wrote, "I was going to buy
milk with this dollar; instead, I will
drink water all week." Nearly $10,000
was collected within a few days.
"As soon as I get it (the
donations) ... put in the bank. No
mod-e leave home. I scared now," the
old man affirmed.
The beneficent citizens felt good. The
Detroit Free Press felt good. And oh,
did Peter Muzyka feel good.
You see, this poor man who lost his
life savings (according to the Free
Press) isn't really poor and didn't
really lose his life savings. He has
$22,686.14 safely stashed in a savings
account.
That small detail was revealed in
another front page story in yesterday's
Free Press-a story that didn't quite
follow the standard formula.
The old man "neglected to mention
his savings account," according to the
newspaper's story. Well, that's not
quite right. He did say he would put the
donations in the bank. He just failed to
point out that he would add the funds to
his savings account.
So a shrewd old man weeping in
broken English to an overeager repor-
ter has shattered the sacred jour-
nalistic tradition of "poor old person"
heart-tuggers.
. Donations to the "Help the Free
Press Save Face Fund" can be made
in care of the Daily, 420 Maynard St.,
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109.
One mile from the heart of the Michigan
Tech campus in Houghton, on a bluff
overlooking the channel to Lake Superior,
stands a sprawling modern brick complex:
Michigan Tech's brand new Student
Development Center.
The Student Development Center is afocus
for Houghton's renaissance; it casts a light on
the town of 3,000 that brings life to the area.
Once a copper mining village, Houghton now
thrives on its tourism businesss and on the
university. The rows of aged houses are
especially striking in contrast to the Center's
modernistic look. The complex is a focal
point, a beginning of what may be yet to
come.
The SDC-all $21 million of it-is awesome.
The basketball arena inside holds 3,500 spec-
tators; there is none larger in the, Upper
Peninsula. The multi-purpose room contains
six basketball courts, which can be arranged
so a running track around the perimeter can
be used. A separate gymnasium is strictly for
gymnastics. And an Olympic-size pool tops it
off.
THE CENTER is scheduled to close in
January because of lack of funds.
The athletic department simply failed to
prepare for management and maintenance
costs. The estimated annual expenses are
nearly $1 million, and the school can't meet
this budget. Somebody made a terrible
mistake.
A blunder of this magnitude could not hap-
pen here at Michigan; we've got Athletic
Director Don Canham. Canham foresees the
trends and prepares for the future. He can
move mountains in this town. He has earned
our trust. He is a proven provider for The
University of Michigan.
Granted, Canhanvhandles the press poorly.
By Dan Conlin
He doesn't reveal any news which could hurt
his department. He makes the press fight for
everything it gets. He doesn't soften his ways
for anyone and he also alienates many
students. But the man knows his role here at
Michigan.
CANHAM GENERATES enough revenue to
allow all the other sports here to operate
without draining the University's general
fund. Though he has increased the price 'of
football tickets regularly, no student is
charged an exorbitant rate. And due tothe
quality of our program, some students can
turn a profit by selling just one ticket.
Students benefit more than anyone from
Canham's revenues.'The number and quality
of our intramural facilities is surpassed by
none. Swimming at the North Campus
Recreation Building, basketball at the Cen-
tral Campus Recreation Building, and pad-
dleball at the Old IM building. . . we have no
basis for complaint.
Students should and will be aware of the
athletic tradition which is now being
established through our athletic prominence.
One day we'll take even more pride in our
teams and the athletic administration as
Michigan alumni. We are recognized on the
national sports map in a big way and con-
tinuous athletic exposure over the last ten
years has brought great exposure to our
academic programs. Michigan sports are a
lifeline to our growing respectaas an academic
institution. Every time a University team ap-
pears on television, Michigan is awarded
free, favorable publicity. ,
CANHAM'S POLICIES toward the student
body and minor sports teams are not perfect,
but they do not overshadow the memories of
1969 through 1972. Student football tickets cost
three dollars back then, and demand was not
nearly as high. Groups of us would go to the
games and have the end zone seats so much to
ourselves that when Michigan would take a
solid lead, we could concentrate on throwing a
miniature football through the stands. There
were so many empty seats we could run pass
patterns up and down the endless rows.
Out of that, Canham has created a dynasty.
He brought Coach Bo Schembechler to Ann
Arbor. For 35 straight games, Canham and
Schembechler-who should share the
credit-have brought 100,000-plus fans into
Michigan Stadium. By the end of this year,
the football team will have made four
television appearances (including a bowl ap-
pearance).
GREAT FOOTBALL teams draw people to
the stadium, and large crowds and en-
thusiasm draw big time recruits from all over
the country. A program like the one Canham
has operated here will rejuvenate itself every
year. The University will continue to reap the
revenues of this program and students will be
treated to fabulous athletic facilities for
generations.
Nothing that Canham has produced for this
university should stand alone. Any one part of
his system judged by itself cannot outweigh the
accusations held close to the hearts of many
students. But the entire system of intramural
buildings, intramural leagues, athletic
facilities, athletic tradition, and the fame the
University has achieved shows the great
things this man has done for the students of
the University. All this makes him worthy of a
pat on the back.
Dan Conlin is a Daily sports writer.
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Henry tenure denial
suggests witch hunt
Thou shalt remain secular
SOME LEGISLATOR in Kentucky
had a brilliant idea a couple of
years ago: He recommended that his
fellow legislators require the state's
public schools to post a copy of the Ten
Commandments on the wall of every
classroom in the state. The idea went
over big in Frankfort, the state
capital-the good old boys in the state
house clearly wanted none of the so-
called New South enlightenment. Not
in the land of mint juleps, high-stakes
horse races, and fundamentalism.
Then some killjoys came along and
discovered a' clause in a certain well-
known document that raised questions
about the display of the Biblical injun-
ctions in a secular setting. It said
something about separation of church
and state, evidently an unpopular
notion in Frankfort.
The heathens (a rabbi, a Quaker,
and a nonbeliever, actually) brought a
court suit that challenged the con-
stitutionality of the state law. The suit
came to a final resolution Monday
when the U.S. Supreme Court struck
down the law, noting that, while
adherence to the Ten Commandments'
might be "desirable," Kentucky's
legislation was indeed unconstitutional.
Though the court's decision was a
wise one, ,there is plenty of cause for
pessimism in connection with the case.
First, there is ample evidence that
many Americans-not just Ken-
tuckians-want their religious beliefs
to be made the law of the land. Laws
against homosexuality, pornography,
and prostitution are all fundamentally
religious in nature, and as such ought
to be deemed unconstitutional. Yet
they probably never will be, and that
brings up the second area of concern.
Monday's court decision was made
by a slim one-vote margin. Two of the
justices who voted for strict ap-
plication of the First Amendment are
considered likely to retire some time
during the next four years. It falls to
President Reagan, of course, to
replace them, and that could mean
dozens of decisions sympathetic to
religion (read Christianity) that could
do civil liberties infinite harm. Lovers
of freedom, beware. And prepare.
To the Daily:
An article published in the Sep-
tember 26 issue of The Michigan
Daily dealing with the refusal of
tenure to Professor Clement
Henry has come to my attention.
In that I have the highest regard
for Professor Henry as a teacher
and a scholar, and in that I have
had some correspondence with
former LSA Dean Billy Frye
(now University vice president
for academic affairs) on this
matter, I feel compelled to com-
ment.
In the spring of 1979, along with
numerous other American and
European specialists on Middle
East and North African politics, I
wrote Dean Frye expressing sup-
port for Professor Henry in the
strongest possible terms. A year
later, following his final rejection
for tenure, I wrote another letter.
I explained to Dean Frye that I
could no longer recommend to
Penn undergraduates The
University of Michigan as a,
desirable institution in which to*
pursue graduate studies.
My reasoning then, as now, is
that any university which denied
tenure to one of the most outstan-
ding scholars in the field of Mid-
dle East and North American
politics is either too lacking in
talent, too poorly organized, or,
as I most fear and suspect, too
politicized, to qualify as a first
rate university. Dean Frye's
assistant responded to this letter,
defending the University's
decision entirely on procedural
grounds, saying nothing of the
merits of the case. Since it was
the substance of the issue and not
CIA is n
To the Daily:
As I sit reading the articles op-
posing the recent Central In-
telligence Agency recruitment
sessions held here at the Univer-
sity, I find myself having to play
the role of the Devil's Advocate.
Many of the persons who seem to
want the CIA recruiters off cam-
pus can see no good or useful role
for the agency. This is where I
must disagree.
The United States can and does
exert great influence in world af-
fairs. Whether this influence is
for things we consider good (the
defeat of Nazi Germany comes to
mind for me) or things we con-
sider had (I am nersonally
the procedure that I was objec-
ting to, I felt the response to be
inappropriate and inadequate.
There is, however, one
procedurally-related matter that
requires comment. Namely, that
Professors Edna Coffin and
Albert Feuerwerker, who are
completely without qualifications
and expertise in modern Middle
East and North African politics,
should justify their votes against
Professor Henry on the grounds
of the quality of his work. They are
specifically cited in the Michigan
Daily article as saying that his
most recent book, Images of
Development: Egyptian
Engineers in Search of In-
dustry, "did not measure up to
the committee's (ie., their)
standards."
This is nonsense. This work is
the most carefully and exten-
sively researched and most
skillfully argued book yet to ap-
pear on Egypt since the rise of
Nasser. It will establish
Professor Henry as the pre-
eminent authority on the process
of political and economic moder-
nization in Egypt. His previous
work, Politics in North Africa, is
already widely recognized as the
leading comparative study of
Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Such positive evaluations could
and would have been offered by
virtually any qualified expert in
the appropriate field had he or
she been asked. Alas, two
unqualified and possibly
prejudiced members of the
Michigan faculty-Coffin and
Feuerwerker-arrogated to
themselves the right to adjudge
ecessary
petent foreign policy, no matter
what goals that policy may en-
tail. It is equally as impossible to
run a "good" foreign policy
without accurate information as
it is to run a "bad" foreign policy
without it (however one may take
those terms).
As an example, I would simply
cite the effect that incomplete,
inaccurate information on China
had on U.S. foreign policy after a
number of our finest China exper-
ts were "purged" in the McCar-
thy years.
So, in closing, I believe it is
very important to separate in our
minds the repulsive role that the
Aci ann a nnyt i h a -t ac
Doily Photo by USA KLAUSNRi
Clement Henry
work for which they have no ap-
propriate standards or
knowledge.
That such procedures are per-
mitted suggests at the minimum
grave defects in the tenure
process at The University of
Michigan. More seriously, it
might point to tacit, or active but
covert support at higher levels
for faculty witch-hunting fired by
prejudicial and ideological
motives. In either case it demon-
strates that The University of
Michigan would best be avoidedt
by serious students of the moderri
Middle East and North Africa. :
-Robert Springborg
Assistant Professor
" Department-of Political
Science and Middle t
East Center
The University of
Pennsylvania
November 10
dMlhl Im gmo-.A Also
Speaker claims misquotes
14
~
.7/
)fu.~
7.
-,N'J
'4 ~ ~ 'N
4 4
4
4
4' 4'
4
~
4-
.
Nei
To the Daily:
I am both astounded and incen-
sed by the Daily's coverage of
remarks that I made at the
Women's Safety Awareness
Rally on Friday, November 14.
Only two quotes attributed
to me in your article in November
15's Daily bear any resemblance
to what I actually said at the
rally. The accurate quotes con-
cern my opinion that all men
benefit from the existence of
rape, insofar as rapists function
as a "goon squad" who enforce
female submission to our
society's male-dominant struc-
ture, and my main point that rape
will continue to exist as long as
there are men who want to rape.
All other quotations attributed to
me in your article are at best
gross distortions of my speech,
and at worst include some en-
tirely false attributions-i.e.,
rallies? .I know of no similar
rallies that have taken place in
our city in the five years I have
resided here. Your reporting bias
is also evident in the article's
focus upon my remarks, even
though your article alleges that I
was the least well-received of the
six speakers at the rally. If I was
the least valuable of the
speakers, why not pay more at-
tention to my five co-speakers,
four of whom were not even men-
tioned in the article that you ran?
And by the way, in my opinion
your assertion that "shouts of
protest erupted from the audien-
ce" as I spoke isfalse. Only two
shouts were audible to me as I
spoke, and one was clearly a
shout of agreement with me and
expansion of a point that I had
made. This leaves one shout of
dissent actually occurring, which
should not be recounted in the
'Mik