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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1969)
O ram WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1969 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA Vol. 93, No. 24 National SDS leader . . . on class ororession .Davidson talks ll The Drag i " t by John Dvorak Nebraskan Staff Writer Look at this floor pretty snazzy, remarked one of the leaders of SDS. "Look what they got out of the sweat of the workers whose kids probably can't even go to school here." ; . ... f ? .:..:; 7) r ( r-. " wv-S ' 5 j , i. . , ' v" ? jT ' ( f r v . ' I I. '. ' 1 f ' ' 1 1 . , If ( ! b; ' K;L-. .. I . ' - I. . ' I . t ' ' i, n 1 J ' Dr. William Birenbaum who Four students named to advise on the draft Four University students are among 11 voung Nebraskans appointed to a Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) to the State Director of Selective Service, according to Dennis Hether rlngton. chairman of the advisory committee. besides He'herinon, the NU ap pointees are John M. Bronson, ASUN Vice PresU'ent Brent Skinner and IDA President Teresa Sledge. Youth advisory committees have been set up in all states by President Nixon and former national Selective Service Director Gen. Lewis Hershey, who "felt a definite need to establish better communications with young people in regard to Selective Service." Nebraska Selective Service Director Lee Ligsett said Tuesday. Liggett said the new youth advisory committee will study the current system and recommend any necessary changes. Each committee" will report to its state selective service director, he said. Recom mendations to the President will be sent from a national convention of YAC delegates early next year. NYU black power to advocate human ' The Malone Community Center will bring one of the nation's foremost ex perts on urban and racial affairs to Lincoln next month. Dr. Nathan Wright, professor of Urban Affairs and Afro-American studies at the University of New York trt Albany, will speak on Nov. 19th at 8 p.m. at St. Paul Methodist Church. Wrtght is the author of a series of books including Black Power and Urban Unrest. lt's Work Together. Ready to Riot and What Black Educators are Saying. He is the na tion's leading exponent of the theory th.if "cities are people." The black professor opjwses what he calls "the prevailing uncivilized government assumption that cities are Carl Davidson was pointing to the finely-finished floor of the Nebraska Union Centenniel Room, and he was speaking about oppression to a crowd of several hundred. "If you want to know what's really going on, study the history of the spoke to a Time Out audience Nebraska committee members were appointed on the recommendation of state labor, agricultural and educa tional leaders to get a broad cross section of Nebraska youth, Liggett added. Besides reprewntitives from the University of Nebraska, there are ap poin'ees fivm state colleges, church affiliated colleges, state vocational training schools and from agriculture and labor. Two young women and a representative of a minority group are also serving on the committee, he said. The committee held lis first meeting Friday, when subcommittees were formed to study the present deferr ment system and two alternatives, tlte volunteer army and universal con scription, according to Ilether Ington. "We are looking for ideas and sug gestions," said lle'therington, "but I won't even listen to gripes. We need concrete suggestions." The committee hopes to report to Liggett sometime in December, Hetherington said. either physical fabric or somt nebulous social structures." ' "Any fool who has gone to school knows that cities are people. If we are to have urban renewal, we must concentrate In many different ways upon human renewal," Dr. Wright said. Wright, who wears African robes, said "I am against revolution In any form, but It should be clear on the other hand, that if we are to survive as a nation, we must have immediate and precipitous regeneration." He also believes that black scholars must be brought to the fore as the nation's best and currently unused resource or the rebuilding of every aspect of urban life. oppressed," said Davidson, one of three interorganizationai secretaries of the SDS, a position equivalent to the presidency. The former teaching assistant at the University of Nebraska went on to demand an end to the oppression of blacks, Chicanos, Indians, women and the working class. The average working man In the United States brings home about $89 a week after taxes, he said. That figure is going down. Members of the working class, who make up about 80 per cent of the labor force, are those who work for a wage and are directly or indirectly related to production. Most students are by Carol Anderson Nebraskan Staff Writer Student power is no problem at the University of Nebraska because most students are powerless and not eager to raise an Issue, according to Dr. William Birenbaum, president of Staten Island Community College. Birenbaum, who says he "stands for disruption," and describes himself as a refugee from Iowa, spoke Tues day in connection with Time Out on the topic of reform in higher educa tion. Most students don't have the vaguest idea of how a university is run, he told a Union audience. "So your arguments are stupid and easily knocked down by shrewd people like me." Students passively accept pro grammed education and are eager for further programming "'be it corporate or military someplace conditioned and comforted where they won't be activated," he added. Criticized Birenbaum also c r 1 1 c i z e d universities for transporting the medieval monastery concept o f education Into modern times. Universities try to remain aloof from the larger issues of the day by dissociating thought and action, ac cording to Birenbaum. The Vietnam moratorium and the University's Centennial College are examples of efforts to breach this wall, he continued, "but these are looked on as subversive to the system." He compared the relationship of the university to its students with the relationship of a major industry to its plant workers. "Your president will never stand up and tell you the purpose of this place Is tyranny that the pun-pose of the university is to sell diplomas." he added. The university exercises this tyran ny, he said, by slotting 6,000 years of knowledge into fields of study call ed "shafts." If a student raises an issue such as Vietnam or racism, he is told the Issue is not appropriate to the "shaft" and that "he Is being prepared to cope with problems like that later," Birenbaum said. Educational success Is measured by how far a student can sink into om of these academic "shafts" and "trouble really starts when students want to shift shafts," he said. Controls Controls on the shaft system that complete the wall, are admissions policies, grades, tenure and promotion and the credit hour requirements. Birenbaum said. Who and what gets taught are political decisions and "academic freedom exists only in IVeirs short Advisors for freshmen and transfer students In Teachers College are now posted outside Dr. N. F. Thorpe's of fice, 103 Teachers College. authority renewal The Senior Editor of Look magazine has said, "Wright has a better grasp of the Implications of Black Power and of the present direction of the freedom movement than any other intellectual I have been able to find." A former clergyman, Wright holds six university conferred degrees, in cluding one honorary doctorate of Laws and two degrees from Harvard. The Malone Community Center is also sponsoring a "Negro History Week" in February. The program will Include black art. drama, music, literature and dance. Tickets for Wright's speech are $1.50. They may be purchased o ordered by mail from the Malone Community Center. "The working people should be the ones who control the state and make the decisions, Davidson continued. They don't. Problems start in the high schools, where the track system tends to discriminate against the poor. "In the high school where I went," Davidson began, "We had three tracks commercial, general and academic. A small percentage of students entered the academic track, which prepared them for college. The blacks were often thrown into the general classification and the women into the commercial. "What the track system does is 'powerless 9 people's heads," according to the col lege president. Birenbaum was fired two years ago from his job as president of Long Island University alter a two-week student strike. He said he still believes it is possible to work for reform with in the establishment. As an example of the wall between the university and the world, Biren baum cited the relationship of the University of Nebraska to Lincoln's black community. The wall can be broken down, he said, by practical learning ex periences with the outer world. For instance, he said, architecture students at Columbia University can't get a degree without working in Harlem. He termed the practice of delaying practical experience such as student teaching until late in one's college career "an absurdity." -;r -If- g --ejs '! "t VkX .. . . : '"j i i ' - - ,- ,1 .'.1 . v .. 1 i if Y- ?s ome landlords will non - discrimination Signed, n 0 n-d I scrimination agreements have been received by the University Housing office for only 674 of the more than one thousand off campus approved housing units. Of the 1.058 agreements mailed to landlords by Sept. 19. NU received no response for 281 units and refusals to sign for another 103 units as of Oct. 28, according to Housing Director Ely Meyerson. Landlords who did not sign the pledge are being removed from the list of approved off-campus housing, he said. According to NU housing regula tions, sophomores not living on cam pus or with relatives mjlst reside in fpecially approved off-campus hous ing. Juniors and seniors not residiug on campus or with relatives may live in generally approved off-campus housing. "We are continually going through the lists of approved off-campus rental units." Meyerson said. "Our concern is not only the failure to sign discriminatory agreements, but for guarantee that certain people wont even have the option to get to a university," said the founder of NU's first SDS chapter. "The general track often means drafting into the military." Davidson, as well as the SDS. demands an end to expulsions and flunking in high schools. "Too often, he said, principals pick the troublemakers, mostly black, and badger them and make them so miserable they will either drop out or provoke suspension. Davidson went on to talk about op pression in colleges. The moustached Penn State graduate is now a colum nist for the "The Guardian," a radical weekly in New York City. He also serves as the leader of the Revolu tionary Youth Movement-2, which recently announced its opposition to the more militant Weatherman faction of SDS. One of the things Davidson and the SDS demand is, ultimately, free education. "The working man provides the resources for the wealthy of the country," he said, "Therefore the wealthy ought to pay for the education of the working mans' sons and daughters." Even after students are admitted to universities, they are often op pressed by not being shown a true perspective of the subjects they are studying. "We want a real understanding, a real perspective," Davidson said. "For instance, anti-comimunism is continually preached, mostly for the purpose of making sure the present government structure will continue." He also rapped the lack of perspec tive In Vietnam studies. "We ought to have some true courses on Vietnam," he remarked. "Most of the knowledge today about Vietnam doesn't come from the classroom, in fact classes often give a different story all together." Davidson calls for an unlimited ad Carl Davidson any factor that might impair the ap proved status of the rental unit," Students found to be living in hous ing that is unapproved for any reason are requested by letter to move. 'JIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIimilllllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIMIIIIM:- 3 LctionLiim f1 a will begin Inext week ! 1 The Daily Nebraskan will starts la campus action line column be-3 grinning next week. The Daily Ne- f braskan will answer any question.! iw.thin reason, about students ands fthe University. The newspaper re-1 S serves the right not to publish every! I inquiry. " I HI'hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiitiimiiiiiiniMiiiiiii,? mission of minority students into col leges and universities. "The open admissions struggle is a struggle against white supremacy," he said. "Opponents say if all high school graduates are admitted stan dards will be lowered, but these stan dards are based on white supremacy." Women, too, are oppressed in many ways, Davidson said. "We demand an end to all forms of male supremacy and an end to the inequality of women," he said. Women are hampered by the double standards of rules on college cam puses, he pointed out. In addition, women are channeled into occupations where they are subservient to men, he said. Women are encouraged to be nurses, not doc tors. Women are encouraged to be secretaries, not executives. "Women ought to have control over their own bodies," Davidson said. "They should have the right to free and legal abortion and ready access to all birth control information. They also should have the right to have children, whether they are married or not." While talking about the racism of the Vietnam war, he took time to rap President Richard M. Nixon's policy of Vietnamization. The President is attempting to shift the brunt of the fighting to the South Vietnamese, he said. What the United States is just trying to do is change the color of the corpses. The source of the problem is the force in the United States that makes decisions affecting peoples' lives the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie constitutes a very small number of people in the United States, perhaps 30,000, Davidson said. Those who play a leading role in making national policy number about 99 families or so. "This is a small number' of people, but a very powerful group," he said. "When we talk about the enemy, those are the ones we talk about." not siffn pledge The agreements state that landlords will not discriminate because of race when renting to students. Signed pledges are only one of many qualifications for approved housing units. Last year was the first time that non-discrimination agreements were incorporated into the housing policy agreements. Many landlords either refused to sign the agreement last year or simply did not respond. However the University did not take any action against those students who' did not move from unapproved houlsng last year since the policy was new. "The University considers it (living In unapproved housing) a violation of standards," Meyerson said. However no decision has been made as to what sanctions to impose on students refusing to move from unapproved housing, Meyerson said the policy decision would be made "very soon, probably in a couple of weeks." 6 fc ..." I V I I. " I- I