O
ram
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1969
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
Vol. 93, No. 24
National SDS leader . . .
on class ororession
.Davidson talks
ll The
Drag
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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."
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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."
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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.
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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."
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