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Show The New Politics Of Student Government; TELL IT LIKE IT IS DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE Ildilor's Note: The fallowing feature article by .lames Michael Murphy is reprinted from the March 1 issue of "Moderator," the national mugaiix; for leading college men. just how really bad things could got in an atmosphere atmos-phere where decisions are mads in a vacuum without regard for the desires of those involved in them. To my mind it's part of the system of state education that administrators don't even have to think about an alternative course of action. ac-tion. They meet as a closed group. They are used to making decisions by themselves. Their action in the IIUAC case was quite logical and predictable." Ed Robinson offers a well-reasoned if not reasonable rea-sonable explanation for the inequities of the entire state university system: "Michigan, like most state universities, is run neither by its faculty fac-ulty nor its student body. At Michigan, the faculty may have a little more autonomy than the students especially in the area of tenure and curriculum, but all their decisions are technically subject to the approval of the Vice President for Academic Affairs. It seems to me that the administration ad-ministration and faculty sectors are not ever going to have the same goals, no matter how much they protest that they, in fact, do. Understandably Under-standably enough perhaps, the administration of a state university has to be responsive to the demands of the state regents who, in reality, govern it (cf. Clark Kerr, ed.) and to the public who tax money sustains it. This dual pressure often forces the university to do what it considers con-siders acceptable to regents and the public rather than what it knows to be right. Students, on the other hand, face no such pressure and therefore are said to be unrealistic in their 'ivory tower' approach to the solution of their problems. I prefer to think, however, that the absence of authoritarian and public pressure in the lives of students gives them a chance to make their university what an educational institution insti-tution ought to be." To Ed Robinson what an institution ought to be was certainly not what Michigan was throughout through-out the HUAC affair. But he can hardly be blamed for its outcome. Laci. August he was a spectator to a fait accc:::i;!i wiiich, as he says, "Michigan students read of as history." But Robinson, like most outspoken leaders, was to have his very own put-up-or-shut-up. The issue? The Draft. Robinson put up. Ever since last September when six University of Michigan students who sat-in at an Ann Arbor Draft board were reclassified 1-A, Michigan students stu-dents have not exactly been enamored of the Selective Service System, if in fact they ever were. In this case, they were in total agreement with University President Harlon Hatcher who declared that the use of the Selective Service as a "punitive measure warps and could even destroy the entire concept of the draft. I don't think you should draft a student because he protests." Along with the cause eelebre of the Magnificent Magnifi-cent Six, Michigan students, as well as the rest of collegiate America, were treated to e. significant signifi-cant change in the draft law; namely, there would now be a Selective Service Test, one's performance on which, together with his class rank which the university would be "requested" to furnish to his local board, would determine future winners of 2-S classifications. Not unexpectedly, this change in the draft age-old and growing grievances with positive action ac-tion aimed at satislying legitimate student needs. These guys, in short, are acting like they have the power which the name of their office implies. And they do. And they're not going to go away. Slowly, but inevitably, administrators are realizing realiz-ing that attention must be paid to these men. Ed Robinson never planned to be President of the Michigan Student Government. And he sure as hell isn't using the office as a prep school for the real Washington thing a common practice of that getting-to-be-anachronous syndrome of cleanie student leader, very well known and equally well despised by (what I chose to call) the aware American student. "I want to be a teacher. That's most important impor-tant to me. I know it sounds corny but I first decided to run for MSG president when I realized that the other avowed candidates did not appear to be at all concerned with issues important to students the draft, the 18-year-old-vote, and, in general, the students' role in the university decision-making process. And frankly, I wanted the challenge of effecting reform programs within with-in the established university system. At the time of candidacy, I hadn't developed my thinking think-ing to the point where I realized that the inherent differences between students and administrators were so great that a representative, powerful student government could not truly exist, let alone function, within the system." Robinson's Joycean epiphany of the flawed nature of the student-administration relationship occurred last August. He was working for the Michigan Director of Student Relations when the House UnAmerican Activities Committee subpoenaed sub-poenaed the membership lists of the University's SDS, DuBois, and Committee to Aid the Vietnamese Viet-namese organizations. After some discussion, the administrators of the "Mother of State Universities" Uni-versities" (as the Michigan News Service Bureau Bu-reau somewhat obtusely refers to the University in its press releases) sent HUAC the 65 name membership list of the three organizations. The significance of the administration's action was not lost on Robinson. "When the University was subpoenaed, they had several weeks to comply. Nevertheless, after several meetings of the Vice Presidents, it was decided that the names should be turned over to HUAC immediately. HUAC had the names within a week. The administration consulted con-sulted no faculty members on this vital decision, no students, and most important, none of the 65 men whose names they sent to HUAC. Most students stu-dents felt that even if the University were not going to buck the subpoena, they could at least have notified the students involved and said, 'look, we're going to send your names to HUAC. If you want to you'll have time to try to get a court injunction preventing us from turning over your names.' "Since the incident, the Vice Presidents have admitted semi-publicly and semi-privately that they were wrong, that they acted too quickly, that they panicked. This seems to be an admin-istrational admin-istrational trait at many schools act now; apologize later. At any rate, the university's reaction to the HUAC subpoena convinced me machinery angered students argued that conscription "1 r. ishment for poor aeadomi ? not C' could not be do,er d : aptitude tests or ra i P'onr-, Michigan, the S ud t cl lass a S "" Robinson set in ZtnZ'T -referendum to dotermL "Vhimrv students approved of" X fe n class t0 local draft boad ',(,f assurance from tlio Michin -id "1Su" I he results of the refer" Khm fmmV. . on future adminis.,-, 7W&sataar. Michigan administration ignored Iacl' the referendum. Well, Ro insnn 'hr ulis ,, gan student leaders feU this h-, -'i got to stop. And it did' On If JUS1 naiwalh Michigan Student Gove nment & I the Michigan administration. ,0kpallliw, Explaining the MSG action r "We felt we could no loZT where we weren't the reposem ' U students. In addition to our ' ,s ' Draft referendum is the fact dent for Student Affairs has to suspend any rules we might , 1 r " ah" dents. What were we there ' or a w't decided to sever our master-shw ' ' uv with the administration and b P i'l,insh own reforms in areas of concen n , K "Ul Planned to continue our diatog e w t W" istration but we no longer consi o d u underjhe authority of ,he omcV But it is one thing for an American Stud,,,, Government to declare itself an ; ' S power and quite another for it to exe Z t power and, to use a phrase that would VI acceptable to America's paternalistic cl E mimstrators, "get away with it." As yet, Robinson hasn't "gotten away will, if but then again he hasn't even tried lie admits ''Our severing of ties with the administration iiasn t made a difference yet. But wo plan i get into the question of women's hours shortly We plan to eliminate them entirely. Then m see what happens, whether the students will f, low our rules or the rules of the administration We hope we have made it possible for student not to think in terms of the inevitable. I agra that a group of people can't fight City Hall; but if everybody fights then City Hall goes. All we need is for a few hundred girls to stay out alter hours. Then we'll see which rule - the admin istration 's or ours the Student Judiciary forces." Them or us. It should be very interesting Especially to those observers who can't quite understand why it is taking the American student stu-dent so long to wield a power equal to that ol their Latin American and European counterparts. counter-parts. Give it time, gentlemen, give it time And give it a few more Ed Robinsons. The Look of Studied Poverty . . . Ed Robinson can turn you off real easy. Here is this guy who's student body president at the University Uni-versity of Michigan. Michigan has 35,000 students which is not exactly Reebo Community College but more like an industry. Try to visualize the president of this industry's workers. Three piece suit. Dark. Blue shirt. Ivy tie. Thirty dollar shoes. Short regular haircut. Smell of English Leather. Your typical clean, well-lighted, student body president. So where does he get off with that sitleburned-wads-of-hair-smothering-the-back-of-his-heail, incongruous-tie, open-at-llie-neek-shirt, teen-age -gang-belt, faded-tight-clean-levis, everyman-work-bcots, look of his? Ed Robinson's look of studied poverty can turn you off real easy. Ed Robinson baits idealogical opponents not so much with words as with looks. It is almost as if he is saying to them, "Go ahead. Get turned off by my appearance. If that's the way you are, we have nothing to say to each other anyway." But, speculation aside, Ed Robinson is certainly at the forefront of a group of neo-studenl leaders (cf. Dan Mcintosh, Berkeley: Richard Gagagen, Houston; Hous-ton; David Harris, Stanford; Howie Keibel, Minnesota; Min-nesota; Shelley Sachs, CCNY; Chuck Larsen, W a y n e State ; David Langsam, Columbia ; Stephen Cohen, Amherst; David Brandt, Cornell; Clinton DeVeaux, Buffalo; Gerald Von Korff, Oberlin; Ben Fein, Queens; et niulti alii) whose programs seek to replace aimless bitching about |