Letters to Michigan Today---Fall 1996

. . . Fall 1996

Michigan Today
412 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1399
email: johnwood@umich.edu
fax: ( 313 ) 764-7084

Praise for Fleming IT IS OBVIOUS reading the ultra-right-wing conservatives' comments on President Fleming's book [Tempests Into Rainbows, U-M Press, 1996] that if they had their way, there would be no dissent in this country. We can be thankful that then-President Fleming had the guts to choose negotiation as opposed to confrontation. William R. Dieckman '47 MA Bella Vista, Arkansas Amens to Rorabacher I PARTICULARLY enjoyed the March '96 issue and want to add my endorsement of Dianna Wistert Rorabacher's letter. I too received a phone call regarding the U-M Visa card. I asked that the information be sent by mail because I am somewhat deaf; the man continued talking, after asking for my SS number and other personal information—which I did not give him. I finally hung up on him (after about a 1/2 hour). The next day I received another call. I told the young woman I would not talk to her and hung up. Solicitors who won't take no for an answer are unbecoming to the U of M. Ann Coe Christiansen Bayfield, Colorado MAY I say a loud, if belated, amen to the letter from Ms. Rorabacher. Students on the phone trying to extract further contributions from alums who've already contributed can be counterproductive. My brother has instructed me not to tell anyone from the U of M where he is! I just blew my stack. Nuff said? Mary Lee Cooke '44, '50 MA Bethany Beach, Delaware "What a Story!" SHALOM! WOW what a story. (The Case of the Artful Painter, June 1996). Talk about reality taking a 180-degree turn. First, I would like to congratulate Bara Zetter-Sapir for what would be to others the crowning achievement of a lifetime's work. If this is Ms. Zetter-Sapir's opening hand, the world stands to gain greatly from her future career. And kudos to your publication for bringing this to light. In the interest of accuracy I would like to make a few corrections: 1) According to the interview the painting was composed between October 1945-March 1946, and was discovered immediately upon the body's removal, not six months later. 2) The painting was sold by the Klugers to estate purchasers John and Sally Smuclovsky, who in turn sold it to me. Salo Kluger approved the sale to the Smuclovskys, not to me. I had not yet entered the picture. 3) It is absurd to infer that the Klugers purchased the painting, as they were penniless survivors in 1946, not likely to lay out a fortune for art. 4) The painting is not expected to hang in Yad Vashem [an Israeli Holocaust museum—Ed.]—they have been consistent ostriches regarding this work. There is no official story to be debunked. 5) Lastly, concerning the copyright information accompanying the photograph of the painting, that photo was copyrighted in 1984 by professional photographer Michael Goldberg. I look forward to the third installment of this story. The unaltruistically presented and accepted version. Imagine what it was for me to open that letter containing your article and to sit on my balcony in Jerusalem, hands shaking, reading how a man who died 50 years and three months ago, bent, bleeding over a canvas, was alive and living in Toronto. And that he came not from the side of the victims, but from the side of the perpetrators. It boggles the mind. Reuven Prager Jerusalem, Israel I READ with interest Ms. Zetter-Sapir's quest for the author of a painting representing the spirit of Nazism, which is currently located in Israel. The article ended with a request for donations to continue her research. Within the past month I received a request for donations from a Palestinian charity, which included the statement that the Israelis had shut off the water supply to the Arab residents of Hebron. Perhaps Ms. Z. will understand if my support went to an oppressed group of Semitic people instead. David Mendenhall Hancock, Michigan Stability Amidst Mobility I WAS surprised to read that there have been problems with mailing labels, changes, etc. My June issue arrived today at my new address, right on time after my recent move. Of course that was to be expected for I had sent in an address change. However, that is the very first time in 61 years that I have notified U-M of my many moves, and still the University has kept correspondence coming after every change, including a five-year gap caused by active duty during WWII. How different two universities can be in this respect. I spent one year of graduate work at U-M, in 1934-35. I haven't heard from my four-year undergraduate university in nearly 50 years. Of course, in one way I have simplified your problem. Instead of adding to the label mixes you have encountered due to spousal changes, I have kept the same wife for over 59 years. Harold A. Schaill, '41 MS (CE) Asheville, North Carolina I THOROUGHLY enjoy your publication, and read the letters with particular interest. I especially appreciated [June 1995's issue] because it notified me that my mentor for student teaching had passed away (Winifred Favreau). Still a French teacher, I brag openly about the U of M, and my students find the picture of [professional basketball player] Juwan Howard receiving his degree gracing the bulletin board. I am thrilled at his accomplishment. By the way, my sons attend the same high school that produced [1995 and '96 football co-captain] Jarrett Irons. Sheila Ann Parsons The Woodlands, Texas I DO appreciate the information about the labels on Michigan Today. I have been unhappy with the mailings from the yearly request for funds as they all of a sudden took the names off the check I sent rather than using my name as they always did. My husband did not go to Michigan and is not interested in any mailings. I do wish the other alum groups would do what you have done. Doris J. Boynton Garden Ridge, Texas YOU DO a terrific job reminding alumni both of past eras in the U of M's history and of what continues to make the University special. The cover stories are exceptional; in addition to their value in and of themselves, they serve—for me at least—to recall a time when I lived, at least for a while, a life of the mind before becoming a corporate drone. The "Destination Xanadu" story in the June '96 issue prompts this note. I spent six years at at the U of M working part-time for the Early Modern English Dictionary, codifying words from old OED slips. Recently, I know, all that information from the project was put on line, as well as so much more chronicled in the Xanadu article. But I can't get to it. Is there any way that alumni can tap into the on-line library and reference sources at the U of M, the way a student can? I'd be particularly interested in access to stuff like the EMED and the Oxford English Dictionary. Vic DePalo Bayside, New York Christina Powell of the Humanities Initiative Project replies: The licenses with the various publishers state that we will restrict access to faculty, staff, and students of the University of Michigan only. This would preclude our providing access to alumni. Negotiations are under way to see what it would take to rewrite the contracts, adding alumni to the mix. As this is potentially a very large group, the publishers want to increase the amount we pay for their products. The resources we create ourselves are available free to anyone with World Wide Web access. These can be found at http://www.hti.umich.edu/all/unrestrict.html. The Library's homepage is http://www.lib.umich.edu. It has links to many other Library resources. Battle of the Bands, cont. I READ with amusement the letter from Bob Patterson in your 1996 issue concerning whether the University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band deserves to be in the same class as the Michigan Band. As a graduate of both institutions, I find Mr. Patterson's criticisms of the USC band as resentful and jealous as they are unfounded. Without resorting to make-weight comparisons as to which school's theme song has greater originality (just ask any Notre Dame grad), each band is, undoubtedly, a class act and boasts a venerable track record. The Trojan Band has played for such presidents as FDR, Kennedy and Reagan, and once was directed by the famed John Philip Sousa. That a Michigan alumnus—Arthur C. Bartner—has directed the USC band for over 25 years attests not only to its national prominence, but to William D. Revelli's and the Michigan Band's enduring legacy. Get over it, Bob. Paul E. Escobar '89 Law Philadelphia News From the Weed-War Front I SENT copies of your "Lawn Mania" by Joanne Nesbit (June issue) to several local publications. Having been involved myself in a township ordinance versus wild plant landscape "weed war," I can clearly see the strong need for disseminating the knowledge and attitudes in the article. Thank you. Daniel M. Less '61 Ortonville, Michigan IT WAS down and dirty at this year's Spring Commencement. I doubt that even the Lawn Mania article explains why every blade of grass was gone from Michigan Stadium. Every blade. All we saw was dirt. Acres of dirt. The band, the speakers, the honorary degree recipients, the regents, the president, they all sat on platforms set in and surrounded by dirt. If commencement signaled such a great gettin'-up morning, as speaker Johnnetta B. Cole put it, then why get up the Stadium to look like a vast sandbox? A huge dirt pile did not honor this year's May graduates. And it's not as if the University didn't know that thousands of new graduates and their families were coming to celebrate? It's not as if this event took the administration by surprise. It happens every year. It's been on the calendar for a long time. It's supposed to be important. After all, the Commencement exercises recognize intellectual effort and academic achievement, the very reason for the University's existence. Even so, Commencement is apparently not as important as getting ready for Big Ten football. If it were more important than football, the University would have waited until Commencement was over to tear up all the sod. If only it were. Janet Graveline Messenger '65 Evanston, Illinois Racial Bearings IF LAWRENCE Hirschfeld uses the pictures on the front of the June issue to test "seeing race" there is a major flaw in his study. Of the bear couple, one is very white, one dark. In the human couple, however, the woman is quite clearly black and the man, with medium-toned skin and curly dark hair, could easily be a light-skinned black. Who would imagine that these two people would have a child with very fair skin and straight blond hair? Surely, as much contrast should be presented in the appearance of the humans as in the bears to make a valid comparison in expectations of offspring. Joyce Baker Leppard '68 Plainwell, Michigan Editor's reply: The combination of physical features of the couple on the cover was only one of several Professor Hirschfeld used. Some couples exhibited the sharper contrasts that you describe, yet this did not affect American children's tendency to predict the darker tones and features to dominate. Researchers also pretested the pictures to be sure that children saw them as examples of "blacks" and "whites," Hirschfeld adds. THANKS FOR the interview with Lawrence Hirschfeld. It motivated me to go looking for his book, Race in the Making. It didn't surprise me that our public library in San Jose, California, the 14th largest city in the country, did not have the book in stock or on order, for the City of San Jose is far more generous in giving subsidies to billion-dollar corporations than to libraries or for education. What did surprise me is that it isn't available at major bookstores or at San Jose State University or Santa Clara University. An employee of one of the largest book retailers said that he couldn't even order the book. I am anxious to read it, for Hirschfeld seems to be breaking new ground. One new-to-me concept that Hirschfeld put forth was that we shouldn't expect students to be able to "abandon common sense intuitions" in learning about race any more than they would in taking a course in physics. Why then was Hirschfeld startled to learn that "the great majority of my colleagues also have great faith in the one-drop rule (a person is Black if they have any traceable Black ancestry)." Apparently his colleagues were students who couldn't be expected to abandon their "common sense intuitions," and who as adults were unable to transfer scholarly teaching methods to examining their own beliefs about human differences. The answer to why the latter is true seems to be at the root of understanding why false information and false attitudes persist. Al Traugott San Jose, California Editor's reply: Race in the Making is available from MIT Press, 55 Hayward St., Cambridge, MA 02142-1399. You may also phone (800) 356-6343, or email mitpress-orders@mit.edu ANTHROPOLOGIST Lawrence Hirschfeld's conclusions about race are the subjective opinions of one man. Hirschfeld divides race into "black" and "white" and ignores millions of children in the United States who classify themselves as more than one race: biracial or multiracial. I agree with the premise that race does not have a biological basis, however, race is not only a social construct but a legal one as well. As such, it is something we and our children must deal with. In other words, if black and white exist, then the combination of black and white exists, and that is what we should be telling our children. Our children are not best served by telling them Hirschfeld's solution, "In contemporary America there are good reasons for individuals with black and white parents to declare themselves black." This only perpetuates the racist "one-drop-of-blood rule." If race is not biological, then how can one-drop of biological blood determine race? It matters little if it is rooted in a biological, social or legal sense, if we continue to perpetuate the myth that multiracial children must be forced to choose the race of one parent over the other. Susan R. Graham President, Project RACE Roswell, Georgia Professor Hirschfeld replies: Ms. Graham's letter raises some important issues, but does so at the expense of accuracy. She is correct in observing that for many Americans the racial and ethnic categories that American society and the Census Bureau make available often violate their personal experience. However, she attributes to me claims that I did not make and that indeed contradict the very point I was making in the interview. First, it is absurd to contend as she does that I divide race into "black" and "white," or that I advocate the one-drop rule as a means of resolving ambiguous racial identity. The only rationale for attributing these proposals to me is an apparent inability to distinguish between researching an idea and holding it. It is simply the case that American society partitions a large portion of the population into a few racial categories, despite the fact that these categories neither reflect many people's experience nor are they motivated by biology. A reasonable, and I would argue important, research question is how do children come to do this. It is also the case that much of American society uses the one-drop rule to deal with people who do not easily fit into one or another category. When I said that there is good reason for some mixed-race individuals to declare themselves black, I wasn't proposing that every mixed-black/white individual should use this option. I was simply noting that many blacks feel that using it is an important way to maintain black heritage. The one-drop rule may be rooted in racism, but is nonetheless used by minorities in ways that have nothing to do with racism. Again, discovering how children come to hold this view is a valid and timely topic of research. Debating Points REFERENCE IS made to your December 1995 and March 1996 issues: Three perhaps disparate items caught my attention in the December issue—President Duderstadt's obvious preoccupation with the feminist agenda; a reference to a student code overturned by the courts ( a continuing black eye for the University); and announcement that two women are co-chairs of the presidential search committee. What a hue and cry there would have been if two men had been selected as co-chairmen, especially were they white males! Gerard M. Freeman '50 Rackham Candler, North Carolina "Unfinished Business" I WAS pleased to read the interview with Dean Edie Goldenberg, "Unfinished Business" in the June issue. The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program sounds exciting and promises to help turn out truly educated graduates in all fields. I hope it continues to expand rapidly and that you publicize it more. I have long been interested in the need for cross-pollination of ideas among the disciplines. I like to recall efforts back in 1943-44 when we in the Engineering Council tried to get the engineering dean to support a program of electives aimed at supposedly illiterate engineers. Although he was strongly opposed to "stealing time" from the prescribed curriculum, we succeeded in having LS&A sponsor several lecture classes. I often wondered if the program continued. This might be a future article for Michigan Today. In the same vein I am enclosing a copy of an item from the Journal of the American Medical Association, "Medicine in the Humanities: Recovering a Tradition" (Dec 6, 1995), which touches on the same idea for physicians. Why not add U of M to the list [of 23 North American programs offering a degree in medical humanities—Ed.] mentioned here? L. R. Burnett '44 Chem E Kensington, California Dean Edie N. Goldenberg replies: I am pleased to say that many students from the College of Engineering take courses in LS&A beyond those they need in math and science to complete their degree requirements, including courses in the humanities and social sciences, and I expect they'll continue to do so. The new Dean of the College of Engineering, Steve Director, is very interested in undergraduate education. He and I will be having a series of meetings to discuss how we might best work together to serve the interests of students in both our colleges, as well as to maintain and improve generally the quality of undergraduate education here at Michigan. I have looked over the article from the JAMA with interest. We don't get much of a say, of course, when it comes to defining what and how medical schools should teach, but the need for premed students to gain a broad liberal arts education remains a continuing concern of ours and we work hard at making sure they get it. THANKS FOR the wonderful "first edition" I have received. Please keep me permanently on your mailing list. I went to the University School from seventh grade to graduation, 1942. Then I went to U-M's School of Lit, Sciences, and the Arts, graduating in 1946. My daughter, Mrs. Jill Miller, went to University Elementary and graduated U-M High (from 7th through the last graduating class for University High). She got her second degree (after four years at Michigan State) at U-M. I have made four copies of "Unfinished Business" to send to two daughters and two friends. Marilyn Oppenheim Pompano Beach, Florida Three Brothers in a Row I BELIEVE that I and two brothers may share the distinction and honor of three brothers graduating in three consecutive years from the University of Michigan, all from Raynham, Mass. The brothers are: Kilborn Lothrop Hall, born 1/2/09, graduated 1935, BS, Ed., settled in Battle Creek, Michigan, deceased Sept. 15, 1992; Winthrop Dorman Hall, born 6/24/12, graduated June 1937, degree in pharmacy, settled in Dearborn, Michigan, deceased 12/25/88; and Leland Wilbur Hall, born 7/22/14, graduated 1936, BS Ed, married in Dallas in 1938, settled in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in 1946. Based upon the three consecutive years of graduation, I believe we are record holders. A fourth brother, Clarence S. Hall Jr., class of 1943, left in May 1941 and enlisted in the US Coast Guard as an apprentice seaman; 28 years later, he retired as a captain. He was on active duty in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Grenada. At 70 years of age he enlisted in the Merchant Marine and served on cargo ships to the Gulf War. Leland Wilbur Hall, '36 BS Ed South Dartmouth, Massachusetts Editor's note: Researcher Heather Cummings of the Bentley Historical Library informed Alumnus Hall that although she had "never come across any family that has done what you and your two brothers did," it was "next to impossible to confirm" that their sequence is unique in U-M history. Our Web Site GREAT WEB SITE nice to have contact with Michigan again from down here. Thought I'd update you on my address so I could continue to receive various alumni stuff. (Michigan Today included?) Tom Short '82BSE, '86MSE Balmain, NSW, Australia tshort@zip.com.au Editor's reply: Due to costs, we cannot mail Michigan Today beyond North America. But perhaps readers who know U-M graduates or other interested persons overseas can alert them to our edition on the Web at http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/MT/mtfpg.html I AM very pleased to see the wonderful material available on the Web. It reminds me of the challenging years I spent in lovely Ann Arbor. Congratulations!! Moise Haor '92 E I WOULD be interested in knowing if you have established a data base for eligible Michigan Alumni that are single and interested in meeting other singles? Thanks! Rochelle Martinez-Mouilleseaux Chelsea, Michigan
Editor's reply: There seems to be no such service. Alumni can, however, join U-M OnLine and meet other alumni there. For information, call (313) 764-8000 or e-mail m.alumni@umich.edu

Keep Your Reference Letter File Active
The Career Planning and Placement office is conducting its regular review of reference letter files that are no longer active. As part of an ongoing process, files that have been inactive since December 1985 will be destroyed by the Reference Letter Center (RLC).
To maintain an active file, a student or alumna/us must have conducted one or more of the following transactions since December 1985: transmitted (mailed) reference letters as part of an admission or employment process; added new letters to the file; submitted updated personal data (e.g. current address, telephone or newly acquired degree).
To reactivate a file unused since 1985, contact the RLC by Nov. 15, 1996. You will be asked to supply updated information for inclusion in your file. There is no charge to reactivate a file.
File deactivation affects only reference letters. Transcripts and other academic material will not be affected by deactivation of reference letter files.
To start a new file, any U-M graduate, or current student with at least 12 credits, may contact the RLC and request the necessary information. Each year 3,000 new files are incorporated into the system. Last year, reports RLC Manager Lisa Chambers, the Center assisted fileholders with active files by accepting 12,000 new letters into their files, and mailing over 30,000 reference letter packages to graduate and professional schools and employment settings across the country.
For more information, contact: Reference Letter Center, 3200 Student Activities Building, 515 E. Jefferson St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1316. Phone (313) 764-7459; fax (313) 763-4917; e-mail cp&p@umich.edu.

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