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Academic Freedom Report rfie Masked Bureaucrat Rides Again! By MICHAEL KINDMAN In England, as every college fresh­ The responsibility to secure, re­ man knows, there is no written con­ spect and protect such opportunities stitution, but rather a complex set of and conditions is shared by all mem­ precedents and historical documents bers of the academic community. .." which together represent the sum of ". .If the Student Board of ASMSU English "common law." The United and the Faculty Committee of Student States, on the other hand, has a writ­ Affairs disagree over the regulations, ten constitution dripping with venera- the Vice President for Student Af­ bility, made up in the early days of fairs shall refer them to an ad hoc independence in an attempt to codify Conference Committee consisting of the legal basis of life in the chosen two students, appointed by the Chair­ land and steadily improved upon ever man of the Student Board of ASMSU, since. and two members of the Faculty Com­ The Faculty Committee on Student mittee on Student Affairs, appointed Affairs of Michigan State University, by the Chairman of that committee. never a group to pass up a good The Conference Committee shall thing, has over the past year or so study the points of disagreement and attempted to combine the two sys­ forward its recommendations to the tems—by including both down-home Student Board of ASMSU and to the folk wisdom and complex legalisms Faculty Committee on Student Af­ in its lengthy proposal of revised fairs. If both bodies accept the recom­ student regulations for the univer­ mendations, the Vice President for sity, which it painfully produced af­ Student Affairs shall make public his ter studying the existing rules for decision regarding the regulations several terms. The document the committee has produced—which is ". .The basic purposes of the now a mere two steps from becom­ University are the enlargement, dis­ ing university law—has a nearly un- semination and application of know­ matchable style and elan. Note the ledge. The most basic necessity for clever blending and counterpoint of the achievement of these purposes is traditions: freedom of expression and communi­ "Each right of an individual places cation. Without this freedom, effective a reciprocal duty upon others: the sifting and testing of ideas ceases duty to permit the individual to ex­ and research, testing, and learning ercise the right. ." are stifled. Knowledge is as broad "Cases involving alleged viola­ and diverse as life itself, and the tions of regulations under the juris­ need for freedom is equally broad diction of a living unit judiciary shall be referred to that judiciary by the Get the idea(s)? Somewhere in the administrative officer of the unit. A report, there is a little homespun living unit judiciary may waive jur­ platitude to explain or to rational­ isdiction over any case and refer it ize practically everything the uni­ to the All-University Student Judici­ versity does; there is also enough ary. ." bureaucratic circumlocution to choke "The freedom and effectiveness of any respectable cow. the educational process depend upon "BASICALLY A SOUM0 OOCUMEA/T --/VOW THAT I'VE There are some very good things in the provision of appropriate condi­ the report, I had better say for the tions and opportunities for learning. £Lir4tt4AT£D A FEVi MINOR FLAWS." continued on page 12 THE PAPER FORI HI MAN DEMONSTRATING HIS Sinclair on Sinclair SUPERIORITY OVER ANIMALS. that intellect bag The new PAPER just arrived, and analysis change, etc. All that's just I'll take it in lieu of a letter as it for his information, to demonstrate seems to happily answer my questions that I know where I'm at and why, etc. of last week, i.e. about the column, I mean these guys have got to stop poems, etc. Thanks for running the being so SCARED about everything W.S. poem last week, along with that's happening — their precious Tyner's cartoon—I was (we both were) intellects will still carry them happy to see them together in such through, if that's what they need. I a context, and of course that's one used to write for all kinds of non- of my favorite Cobb cartoons, too, left-hippy publications but now would the one you ran. much much rather write for the news­ Haven't had time yet asitjustcame papers and related publications as for to read the new PAPER through, but did read Larry Tate's critical "open letter"--it's too bad he's so hung up with all the "pure intellect- Another Open Letter ualism" etc.—maybe you can cool him out as far as his position on Sinclair is concerned by letting him Messrs. Kindman and Tate: an elaborate set of Carlylean clothes know that I too was once an under­ For your Missed Point Department: pretending to be an emperor. graduate intellectual, concerned with "I needn't defend my interest in The highest objective of a non- values, etc., edited my college news­ dialogue and freedom of expression" establishment paper should be the paper in the best modern liberal (Mike Kindman, "A Brief Response development of a style which cuts style (The Word, U of M Flint Col­ . .," 13 Feb.). The existence of through sartorial trappings to the lege), published in Liberation, read THE PAPER affirms Mr. Kindman's core, the meaning of ideas, events, Norman Mailer and almost Saul Bel­ interest in these, and defense is cer­ tendencies, etc. Such a paper would low seriously, went to B ergman flicks, tainly not necessary to the readers assist the earnest intellect to per­ president of U of M Flint College of any non-establishment paper. But ceive the absurdity both of the State Cinema Guild, Unitarian Church, etc., THE PAPER falls far short of demon­ Department's be-f r ee-or»die pro­ Grad School in English Lit at Wayne, strating that essential activity and the nouncements and of rhe advertise­ all credits completed, Master's Essay reason is not a subordination of style ment (Feb. 13 issue) on William B ur rough's "Naked me they're the most exciting literary to "Other considerations"; rather it is book of poetry-prayers, whose Lunch," etc., and it's taken me all development in the world as far as a burying of those considerations un­ is the transcension of mere salf* I can see. My own identity was bound der stylistic poses trying to pass for AUTOgraphed by the author. I have--^ this time to work through all that come to doubt that such honest bal­ shit to get where I'm at now—and the up with the existence of the little ideas. magazines, but as far as I'm present­ If THE PAPER'S primary function ance is possible in a paper whose use of lysergic acid has helped a style of writing and composition is great deal. Peyote experience in 1963 ly concerned the little magazine is is "coalescing those thoughts, events, DEAD—the papers are much more the sine qua non to which ideas are first turned me around, set me tendencies and unarticulated feel­ mere camp followers. straight, etc., after going through public, faster to get -out, regular, ings," whatever their source, it would whole Freudian - existential - self- get to more people, etc., etc., YES. seem the worst way to serve that What Mr. Tate wants for THE PA­ function to present them in a still PER is the fine and lucid style that JOHN SINCLAIR unarticulated form. Indeed I can not marks the clear and lucid mind. What believe Mr. Kindman would be satis­ he sees is the chaos of nascence fied with merely coalescing them; elevated into a fixed stylistic posi­ the Union Grill does this. tion which, since it distorts content, THE PAPER In a time when the establishment must arrest the development of the press has lost touch with ideas and thought it is supposed to represent. THE PAPER is published weekly during regular school terms by when a nascent community of in­ This is the antithesis of the truely students of Michigan State University and many of their off-campus tellects is groping toward ideas im­ free press. It takes McLuhan's de­ portant to the whole community, the scription of mixed media and converts friends. It is intended as a channel for expression and communica­ it into a prescription, media-mix, tion of those ideas, events and creative impulses which make of the essential function of an "underground which is anathema to the flexibility university community a fertile ground for the growth of human press" must be one of interpretation, Mr. Kindman professes. learning. THE PAPER hopes to help the university strive toward not coalescence. Unarticulated feel­ fulfillment of the highest ideals of learning and free inquiry by re­ ings, tendencies, random events, I have approached the sense of Mr. porting and commenting on the university experience and by en­ chance thoughts, however brilliant or Tate's letter with an intellect and a couraging others to do so. incisive, need to be given form and style somewhat different from his coherence if they are to be present­ own. Yet I think he understands what Correspondence should be addressed to: ed meaningfully to a readership from I have said and can feel my pur­ THE PAPER either camp (I take "dialogue" to be pose through my style. I think I have Box 367 inclusive of the establishment). To put into intelligible form thoughts expect ideas to carry the field in and feelings about THE PAPER which East Lansing, Mich.

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