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OPINION
Friday, September 11, 1987
Pm.g
sPage 4
The Michigan Daily
New 'U
president should have
principles
By Bert Hornback
The Regents of the University of
Michigan are in the process of choosing a
new president for us. That's quite a task.
First you have to decide what a university
is or should be, and then what kind of
person you want as its chief executive
officer. Then you have to find the person
you want.
I don't have any suggestions about the
third, but I do want to talk-to the
Regents and to us-about the first two
items.
To start with I want to define several
terms-several old-fashioned, common
enough words-that we will have to deal
with. First of all, what is a "university"?
It's not a corporation, or a business. A
university is a place for learning about the
world: and the world is-must be, if it is
to survive-a social place. The word
"university" suggests that we consider,
think about, try to learn everything.
There aren't limits, and there shouldn't be
exclusions-provided what we are trying
to learn is humane, and decent.
If it isn't profitable to teach Sanskrit,
that doesn't matter-in a university.
Profitability is a business concern, a
marketplace value. Sanskrit-the
language, the culture that the language
carries-has contributed more of value to
human history than Economics has. It's
more important for the University of
Michigan to offer classes in Sanskrit-or
Algonquin, or Italian-to ten students
than to have another ten or ten hundred
computer terminals.
We have an. excellent History
department, and an American Culture
program. But in neither do I see a course
on the Great League of Peace, founded by
the Iroquois nation in the sixteenth
century. A great North American
university should teach such. Instead, we
now offer a course on the history of the
University of Michigan. I trust that I am
not being disloyal to suggest the
Bert Hornback is a Professor of
English.
University of Michigan is hardly that
important-and not worth four credits.
Let me add-to widen the argument and
to distract prejudice-that athletics should
be a part of the idea of a university, too:
even varsity athletics. But let's remember
that "varsity" is short for
"university"-and not a word for semi-
professional sports, or road shows, or
entrepreneurial adventures designed to
replace education.
The questions of whether we teach
Sanskrit or the history of the University
of Michigan, or have a varsity athletic
program, are significant ones. And they
have to be decided according to
principle-which is our next word.
What we mean when we speak of
"principle" is knowing what comes first.
If I believe-on principle-that a
university is a place of learning then I
can't put profit before learning. To do so
is to violate my alleged principle-and act
hypocritically.
What it means to live a principled life
is that one tries to determine how one
lives, thoughtfully and intelligently: that
one doesn't live by accident, or expedient.
It means that in any situation in which I
find myself, I have to refer to what I
believe in-to my principles-in order to
determine how I will act.
My principles may change, o:
course: they must, I suspect, as I learn
more about myself, this world, and my
place in this world. But I change or
modify my principles only upon careful,
earnest consideration.
I suppose I could have grown up
thinking that me is the principle I wanted
to live by: self-service, self-gratification,
self-interest. By the time I reached
adolescence-and discovered how small
self is, and how much I needed other
people-that had to change.
There are people-lots of people,
alas-whose principle is self, and that
most materialistic form of self, called
greed. They're stuck in adolescence-and
in a university, our job is to try to educate
them out of that pathetic limitation.
And we need a leader who will help us
do that.
I've used that nasty word "greed" twice
now. When B. E. Frye was vice-president
for academic affairs, he wrote me once,
asking me not to use that word because it
is "an ugly, offensive word." It is such.
We haven't sterilized it yet: morally and
socially, it says bad things. We have
almost sterilized words like "egotism" and
"self-interest": at least in the marketplace,
where so many of us live or want to live,
egotism and self-interest are supposed to
be good things, even though we know that
they are anti-social and thus immoral.
"Social" and "moral," by the way, are
words which talk about how we live
together-that's all. But "together" is a
big word, an important word. It's
important the same way "legal,"
"intelligent," "religion," "college," and
"justice" are important.
Most young people these days have had
Legotsets as children. Whoever created
that toy knew Latin, or Greek. Leo
means "to bind together." It's the root of
such words as "legal," "intelligent,"
"religion," and "college." They're all
words about how we bind ourselves
together, to make a society.
Socrates-whose way of life ought to
exist as a model in the center of any
university-said that just people need no
laws. "Justice" is a word that comes to us
through that old language called Sanskrit.
It means "to come together, to join, to
worship." Join and joint and junction and
justice are all the same word. If we could
even learn justice-as a people-then we
wouldn't need laws. That's what Socrates
said: if we would learn to join together, to
be social, then we wouldn't need to be
bound together by laws.
Society is a word that carries,
etymologically, the sense of
friendship-and following. "There were
these two friends, following each other
down the street." That's society. When
we can understand that-and not make the
"following each other" part of it self-
contradictory-we will be ready to make
for ourselves a better world.
It's not easy. That's why we're all in a
university: to try to learn such things.
And the only way we can learn them is by
learning how to think clearly and honestly
and decently. And we need someone-as
president-to lead us toward such learning,
in a university dedicated to the principle
upon which such learning is founded.
The principle focuses our attention on
our living together: collegially, socially.
And it invites us, then, to move from
university to the universe.
The idea of honesty-honest living in
this world-brings me to the next word:
"prestige." Until very recently, prestige
wasn't a good thing. John Stuart Mill
wrote of "the prestige with which
Napoleon overawed the world" as "the
effect of stage-tricks." William Gladstone,
the British prime minister, praised
"Honour, but never that base-born
thing...called prestige."
Prestige is derived from the Latin
praestigium, which means "illusion" or
"trickery." Prestidigitation is the word we
use for a conjuror's tricks. We shouldn't
want this to be a prestigious university.
We should insist that it be a real
university.
If the president of a university says that
he believes in the value of human life-in
life on this planet, or in this universe-he
can't then argue for allowing research the
end of which is the destruction of life.
And we need, now, a president who
believes-on principle-in the value of
life, and who won't sell that value for
defense department dollars.
We need a president who believes
honestly and absolutely in human, social
values-not in greed and self-interest. We
need a president dedicated to the real idea of
a university, not to prestige and
marketplace thinking. We need a president
who has principles- significantly social
principles. We need a president who
believes in justice as well as intelligence
and collective life.
I am arguing for you and me, for us. A
president's job is to lead you and me-to
preside over us in a wise fashion. And we
need moral, social, intelligent, honest
leadership these days. What we
learn-should learn-in a university is
how to make a universe. And this one
needs making.
Maybe we can have as our next
president someone who will insist that we
are here to learn to live good lives, not
just to make money. Maybe-like
Socrates-he will value teaching and
learning more than publication, too.
Socrates, we should remember, didn't
write anything at all. He wasn't a
researcher, or even what we call a scholar.
He was an educator, however: and he
believed in education, and in society.
What we should ask for is a president
who has principles, and tries to live by
them-not someone interested in prestige.
And we should insist on someone whose
principles are social and moral, not greedy.
This world won't survive as a greedy
world. If we won't be social, eventually
we won't be at all. There's no human
social justification for greed-or yuppies
or investment banks or trading on the
stock market. Self-interest is anti-social.
And it will destroy-is now
destroying-our world.
In a university we try-through our
studies-to learn to live social lives. The
end of life is not button-collecting. He
who devotes his life to such will end up
raging in frustration against death, with
boxes and boxes of buttons under his bed.
If we are to be a great university
again-if, as a university, we are really to
serve society and ourselves-we need a
president who is more than a button
collector. We need a president who, by
his life and in his office, will help us to
make the University of Michigan a decent
place where decent humans can pursue,
together, both wisdom and goodness.
It is up to the Regents, finally, to find
someone who can so serve us, and lead us.
I want to work for such a person. I want a
president who will help you and me-all
of us-to make the University of
Michigan the best place it can possibly
be.
Edite faitdetsatT niversity
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
LETTERS:
Explaination required for Navy attack'
Vol. XCVIII, No. 2
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, M! 48109
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other
cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the Daily.
Summer
SUMMER MAY OFFICIALLY END
September 20, but for most students in
Ann Arbor, it ended yesterday.
While people still play frisbee on the
diag and the bars remain crowded,
these activities are only superficially
the same as they were two days ago.
It's harder to be carefree when a paper
is due tomorrow or a quiz takes place
in an hour.
The school year lends itself to
considerations of majors, careers,
grades and other unpleasant but
important subjects relating to one's
future. As tempting as it may be to put
off these stressful thoughts,
confronting them now can make life
easier later. Here are some ways to
began that process.
Don't treat your schedule as a
sacred, immutable document. Courses
are designed to be dropped. Sit in on a
variety of different classes and take
advantage of the three week period
during which you can drop/add at no
charge. The University has a lot to
offer but you've got to shop around to
find it.
over
Frequently, it is impossible too get
into the best classes because they were
filled the second day of CRISP. The
University needs to ensure that places
are available in classes people want to
take and that class size remains
workable.
Pace yourself. Don't take school so
seriously you forget to go to happy
hour, follow the Tigers, or, heaven
forbid, read the Daily. On the other
hand, there are few feelings worse
than contemplating an unstarted
reading list the night before a final.
Finally, get involved in something
outside of class. In many cases,
extracurricular activities are an equally
important or more important part of
one's education than course work.
This University harbors many
political groups, social organizations
and career-oriented clubs which are
worth investigating.
Remember, while summer is
undeniably over unless you follow
your calender unquestioningly, the
school year offers its own unique
pleasures. Like it or not, it is time to
move on and begin experiencing them.
To the Daily:
If a Soviet army train were
to drive through a crowd of
Solidarity protesters in Poland,
running over Lech Walensa and
severing his leg, the U.S. press
would be overflowing with
quite proper righteous
indignation. So it is hard to
explain the lack of interest
when, on Tuesday, Sept. 1, a
U.S. Navy munitions train in
California ran over anti-war
protester and Vietnam veteran
Brian Wilson, cutting off his
legs and cracking his skull.
There is strong evidence of a
deliberate Navy decision to
attack the protesters and
undeniable evidence of
unconscionable medical
neglect. In addition to contra
aid, the case raises the question
of whether citizens have the
right to protest without being
run over by a train.
Wilson and several scores of
others were prostesting U.S.
aid to the contra rebels who are
trying to overthrow the elected
government of Nicaragua.
Weapons intended for the
contras are stored at the
Concord Naval Base near
Oakland, where Wilson was
run over. Wilson, 47 years
old, was one of four Vietnam
vets who fasted for over a
month on the U.S. capitol
steps last year to protest U.S.
aid to the contras. He was to
have begun another fast against
contra aid after the protest.
The whole incident has been
met with deafening silence by
the media and the government,
but the Navy's evasions show
that the sort of lying which has
characterized U.S. policy in
Central America does not stop
at the Rio Grande, and the
Wilson and that the train was
moving at only 5 mph. He
must have "jumped on the
tracks" at the last minute, they
assert. But according to the
San Fransisco Examiner
columnist Rob Morse (an ex-
Marine), TV technicians who
studied a videotape of the
incident said that the train was
moving at 17 mph when it
struck Wilson and there were
two Navy observers on the
front of the train and two with
radios among the protesters in
immediate view of Wilson.
Scores of demonstrators were
gathered around and on the
track, all, except Wilson,
jumping away at the last
minute; Wilson remained
kneeling on the track from
early on. Moreover witnesses
said the train stopped, then
started again, quickly building
up speed (Examiner, Sept. 2).
The evidence suggest that the
Navy deliberately and cold-
bloodedly ran Wilson down.
That's not the worst of it.
Navy medical personnel arrived
on the scene within five
minutes, took Wilson's pulse,
and did nothing for 40 minutes.
The Navy ambulance did not
take Wilson, a bemedalled
veteran entitled to VA benefits,
to the Navy clinic a few
minutes }away on the base.
Wilson, leg severed, was left
lying on the track without
medical attention for 40
minutes before the county
ambulance arrived to take him
to John Muir hospital ten
miles away. Morse has seen
photographs of Marine medics
and Navy personnel standing
by with arms folded as
Wilson's wife, Holly Rowen,
stanched the bleeding with a
his expenses should be made
out to the Mt. Diablo
Unitarian Church (for Brian
Wilson) and sent to Mt. Diablo
Peace Center, 65 Ekley Lane,
Walnut Creek, CA 94596.
Together with the
government's response to the
contra murder this April in
Nicaragua of U.S. peace
activist Benjamin Linder, the
Wilson affair shows that the
government is willing to
murder and assault North and
Central American citizens who
disagree with its policies. In
Linder's case, government
officials suggested that he "got
what was coming" because he
was alleged to be in fatigues
and carrying a weapon. In fact,
Linder was unarmed and in
civilian dress, but the idea was
the anyone in Nicaragua who
takes precautions against'contra
terror funded by U.S. tax
dollars deserves to die. It will
be interesting to see what
excuse the Navy comes up
with to blame Wilson's tragedy
on the victim.
If Americans sit still for
U.S. military terror at home or
in Nicaragua, out liberties will
not be worth much. We only
have them as long as we defend
them with vigilance against the
Pentagon, which will
otherwise run us all down in
its zeal to restore right-wing
military dictatorships abroad
and McCarthyite fear at home.
Let's stand up for the real
American hero, Brian Wilson,
now that he can no longer
stand up for himself.
For starters, write a check
for Wilson's medical care and
letters to U.S. Representative
Carl Pursell, U.S. Senators
Don Riegle and Carl Levin,
Don Riegle and Carl Levin,
President Reagan, and Defense
Secretary Caspar Weinberger
demanding an accounting. And
while you're at it, write them
demanding an end to contra aid,
the cause for which Wilson
lost his legs.
-Justin Schwartz
Professor Daniel
Axelrod
Perry Bullard
Jeff Epton
Kim Groome
Benjamin Ben-Baruch
Kim Miller
Dee Axelrod
Thea Lee
Barbara Ransby
Nancy Hanke
Tamara Wagner
Jean Besanceny
David Bassett
Alan Wald
Barara Scott Winkler
September 10
44
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