Thanks also for encouraging us to update your mailing list. It's incredible to me
that you found my address, since I've moved many times since graduation. I look forward to the next issue!
THE EXCERPTS from President Fleming's
autobiography generated a reminder of the beginning
of my partial estrangement from my University.
Pleasant memories of friends, instructors and
experiences (educational and otherwise) remain. But
ex-President Fleming's writings, for which there
should be little market, remind us of his craven
and cowardly handling of demonstrators for whom he
acknowledges sympathy. The Detroit News
correctly characterized him: "begging on [his]
knees for the forgiveness of arrogant radicals."
Reading these excerpts demonstrates that time
is not a great teacher for those who will not
learn. How can he not understand campus resentment
against the affirmative action programs that have
followed and flowed from his tenure in office? The
black community had every right to be outraged when
the playing field wasn't level before the Civil
Rights Act. But the white community, including
today's students, would be less than human if they
didn’t resent preferential admissions policies. In
addition to being morally deficient, a US District
appeals court has ruled racially based admissions
policies to be unconstitutional. Frankly, black
students should resent these as well. Racially-
weighted admissions and hiring policies demean the
minority community.
In the wake of President Fleming, we had
President Duderstadt, with Women's Mandates, racial
sensitivity classes replacing academic substance
(do they teach Gresham's Law anymore?); and such
current fiscal insanity as paying $207,000 annually
to a professor because he previously had been chief
financial officer and it wouldn't be "fair" to
reduce his pay even though his duties are
diminished! Academic excellence in Ann Arbor seems
to have a lesser priority.
So I will buy my season tickets to the
football games, and will follow with pride Coach
Berenson's national championship hockey team as it
attempts to repeat, and pretend in my heart of
hearts that Harlan Hatcher is still our president.
Michael J. Gillman '61
Traverse City, Michigan |
I WAS particularly fascinated with your excerpts
from President Fleming's autobiography, chronicling
the turbulent times of his service. A baby boomer,
I arrived on campus amidst the late-'60s tumult,
having grown up, a la tens of millions of my
contemporaries, in a period of upheaval after
upheaval. Assassinations, Vietnam, and civil rights
tensions, the killings at Kent State and Jackson
State and consequent campus unrest. To say nothing
of Watergate and other factors in our placing
eternal trust in our wonderful thenpresident Nixon.
Liberating as the atmosphere on any
large, radical university campus would have been to
an 18-year-old only too happy to escape the
incredible pompous arrogance of an age-old
religious high school in a conservative rust-belt
city, our campus evokes unique, special nostalgia
in us all. The afternoons and evenings on the Diag,
at the Union or just strolling to or from class
along South University---need I say more? Which is why
any allusion to that happiest of four-year
periods for yours truly is appreciated. My earnest
gratitude to you for publishing it.
And lest I forget---indeed, Mr. Fleming, nothing could have helped your position following the resolution of the BAM crisis more than Agnew's remarks afterward. A blasting from Spiro T. Agnew. Can we possibly think of a more classic example of
the age-old maxim which states that a double-negative invariably yields a positive?
Michael Polaski
Spencerport, New York |
THE LATEST issue made me realize that in the
questionnaire there was no reference to the Letters
to the Editor. It prompted me to be sure to let you
know that the Letters section is, to me, the most
interesting part of Michigan Today, and it's
always nostalgic to read stories about the World
War II years and the later '40s.
The extracts from President Fleming's book
brought back some personal memories, especially the
letter I'd written to him from Vietnam during my
1969-1970 assignment there. I was not proud of the
University for the aid and comfort individuals like
him were giving, unwittingly or otherwise, to our
enemy, and I expressed as much to him. I feel no
differently today.
L. Col. John W. Mudie '48, USAF (Ret.)
Glendale, California |
Our readers survey is going well, the
Institute for Social Research says. We thank all of
you who have sent your questionnaires back and hope
any of you with unfilled surveys will complete them
soon. If you have misplaced a survey and want a new
one, just let us know. We'll report the findings
ASAP.---Ed.
Who's the Leader of the Bands?
I JUST read the letter from Wilbur J. Lindsay in the June '95 issue, where he suggests that the University of Southern California band is
in the same class as the Michigan Band. Hogwash!! Their theme song, which they stole from some tasteless Hollywood epic, consists of three notes repeated over and over and over ad infinitum ad nauseam, which is their only claim to fame.
This coupled with their movie-set Trojan helmets makes them the laughingstock of Southern California. If they are directed by a former Michigan Band member, I'm sure if you listen carefully you can hear William. D. Revelli doing anguished backflips in his grave. Mr. Lindsay has been away from Ann Arbor so long that he's forgotten what a really fine marching band looks and sounds like.
Bob Patterson
Alta Loma, California |
`Brains Won't Quit'
I THOUGHT the article "Their Brains Just Won't
Quit" in the December '95 issue was very good, but was missing a professor emeritus---Frank Cassara, who was professor of printmaking for over 30 years. He
is probably one of the main reasons that I have become a successful artist/printmaker
internationally. I feel an article should be devoted to him soon (he is at least 84). No other professor spent more time both during and after classes helping me learn about printmaking. Not only was Frank Cassara an excellent teacher, he has continued with the same conviction to create his art ever since his retirement.
Lynn Shaler '77 BFA
Pratt Institute, New York |
Mysterious(ly obtained) Amulets
REFERENCE your article "Ancient Spells and Magic
Amulets" in the last issue, I note you have not
mentioned any reference to really ancient amulets.
How far back do you think they really go? My
curiosity is prompted by an incident that occurred
about 20 years ago. A friend of mine came into the
post office with a small box that he had inherited
from his brother, a musician who had traveled
extensively.
The box contained quite a few items, including
two amulets, one was alabaster stone roughly 1 1/2”
long, hollow, with fine writings and markings of a
family line on it. The other was of gray clay about
the same size, and had family inscriptions on it
also. My friend, who is now deceased, took them to
Michigan State University. The curator there looked
at them and made a decision not to know too much
about them, because he said he felt they had been
illegally acquired. The gray one seemed to be the
one in the picture in the [reference] book he had
in his hand. He said it came from one of the old
families of Egypt with a date that was at least
2000 years BC. The alabaster one was estimated to
be about the first century AD. Both were hollow for
a leather neck thong. They both appeared to have
been used for family seals.
I didn't see in your article any references as to the origins of these marks as family seals. I realize you were showing the supposed magic of the amulets.
In our family we have what is believed to be a Scottish fancy naval dirk. The pommel is missing, and from family stories it was like a seal. There is a story connected to it also, but I'm interested as to how far back you have found the amulets.
Lawrence A. Frith
Vermontville, Michigan |
The artifacts in the exhibit are not seals but amulets used for protection and healing, not for signing documents or tracing family histories. They date from the second to the sixth centuries AD. I have no clue as to what you were shown without seeing the artifacts.---Gideon Bohak.
On This and That
UNFORTUNATELY, I do not have time to read anything like all of the written material that I receive. Michigan Today is one of the many publications that frequently gets fully or partially passed by. However, I started reading your March issue from page one and read and enjoyed it in its entirety. Please accept my compliments on the quality of its articles.
George R. Zuckerman
Bay Shore, New York |
JUST A NOTE to lend my unqualified support to
Dianna (Wistert) Rorabacher's letter in the March
issue. With great eloquence and precision she
expressed feelings and reactions that I have
experienced in recent years regarding the arrogance
and hautiness of personnel employed by my
university, not just in the fund-raising area but
in other offices as well. My thanks to her for
caring enough to take the time to make her concerns
known, and saying so well what I wish I'd said.
Also, my congratulations to Michigan
Today for being willing to print such a
powerful letter. It's a hopeful sign that there is
at least one area of the university that has a
proper and appropriate perspective and realizes
that Ann Arbor is not the center of the universe.
Presley D. Holmes, '51 PhD
Pensacola, Florida |
MY YEAR at Michigan was a very important time for me: I was a student of Austin Warren's and Radcliffe Squire's, but also attended readings by the then-young poet/instructors Donald Hall and X.J. Kennedy, as well as the English poet John
Heathstubbs. I was just beginning to write poetry. The University of Pittsburgh Press has published Scars, my fourth book in the Pitt Poetry Series. I thought you might like to know there's another Michigan grad out there publishing, who remembers his time at U-M with great fondness.
Peter Meinke '61 MA
St. Petersburg, Florida |
THANK YOU for finding me after I have relocated to Atlanta, Georgia. Sometimes when you are out in this world, you sort of forget the bonds you have experienced, when all of a sudden a memento appears that takes you back to a very meaningful past. And
that past for me is the University of Michigan. It meant so much to come home yesterday and find a copy of Michigan Today in my mailbox. For the trouble that you go through to locate your alumni, I commend you. As I get older, I realize
how important the University of Michigan has been to me and I am so proud to be an alumna. Thank you once again and God bless you.
Faith Y. Williams
Atlanta |
FOR THE life of me cannot figure out why "Vietnam-era veteran status" is singled out not to be discriminated against. What happened to the WW I, WW II or Korean veterans? Can you explain this to me?
Name withheld
at writer's request |
Sue Rasmussen, associate director of the
Affirmative Action Department replies: The
veterans' legislation was passed after a great deal
of political activity on the part of large numbers
of Vietnam veterans. . . . They believed that
negative stereotypes about Vietnam veterans (that
they were drug-addicted and mentally unstable, to
name two of the prevalent ones) were operating to
prevent them from getting jobs. Through public
hearings, letter-writing and other
campaigns, Vietnam veterans were able to convince
lawmakers in Congress that they were being
discriminated against and that an appropriate
remedy would be legislation making such
discrimination unlawful.
You may be interested to know that disabled veterans of all wars are also covered by Section 402, but that at the present time nondisabled veterans of wars other than Vietnam are not a legally protected group. When a group is not included in laws or in the policy statement, it does not mean that the University condones discrimination on that basis.
I HAVE enclosed the mailing label from my most recent copy. I ask that you remove my husband's name from the label, but not because we are divorced or because he is deceased. There is a far more serious reason for my request. You see, my husband is a graduate of the Ohio State University (yes, I married a Buckeye!), and he is quite perturbed that his name appears on a publication from the rival institution. Although I find this quite amusing, his displeasure is putting a strain on our relationship.
My husband's name has also been appearing on the solicitation material I receive regarding my annual contribution to the school of LS&A. I suspect they (those in the fund-raising office) are the true culprits in this fiasco, as I would have sent my contribution in the form of a check drawn on our joint checking account. As you can imagine, my husband truly dislikes the idea that he would be considered a financial contributor to the University of Michigan!
Thank you for making this correction. Even though he is a Buckeye, I do love my husband and I would like to preserve our (usually) harmonious marriage. Also, thank you for producing such an interesting publication. It far surpasses anything I have seen
published by that university in Columbus.
Margaret Kavanaugh Dailey '82
Findlay, Ohio |
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