Faculty Unit Says Films Exceed Decency Limits

Faculty Unit Says Films |
Exceed Decency Limits

•••«.

The University's College of|0per6t®ttertigi!ir» SP^f&ljy' Powers, professor of chemical
Engineering faculty yesterday dom of-m^mry-.P. * ' A»wf and metallurgical engineering,
approved a motion stating that "Such freedom must be .ieal-l"1'^ "the administration, fac-
• "on the basis of available evi- ously guarded from attack bothj^y a^ students to take ap-
dence it appears that persons from those outside the acade' -riate action to regain some
within the academic communi-'^.. community who might sc. ptable point of equilibri-
ty have indeed exceeded thelfo restrict it and< from thoscju"!

abounds of common decency and inside who interpret such free j Approximately 80 of the 260
reason." dom as license to go beyond members of the College's facul-

The motion, in reference to the bounds of common dccen- ty were present and voting. Al-
the showing and advertising of cy." though the voice vote was not
^certain experimental films on The motion, presented at the unanimous, it was overwhelm-
'the U-M campus, also states College's regularly scheduled ingly in favor of the motion.

that "an academic community faculty meetmg by John E. powers explained that "avail-
'able evidence" referred to a
legal statement which described
the contents of the film, "Flam-
ing Creatures," which was pre-
sented by the Cinema Guild on
campus and seized Jan. 18, by
the city police.. He cited as oth-
er evidence aa^ftPtt&rtisement
in the student newspa]^,, The
M i c h i g a n^Daily, whwi an-
nounces anothe^Cmema puild
experimental film.^^^^

w'Ai-M^n »^-,i--"tw

The legal statement is on file
in federal district court in De-
troit where Cinema Guild is su-
ing for $15,000 damages and an

^ , injunction barring Ann Arbor of-
ficials from further seizures, ar-
rests or prosecutions in connec-
tion with the showing of experi-
mental films.

Three Cinema Guild officers
and the Guild's assistant man-
ager, who is a faculty mem-
ber, have been charged with a
misdemeanor relating to the
showing of an obscene and por-
nographic film.

The U-M College of Architec-
ture a'nd Design faculty has de-
fended the ,s h o w i n g of the
:"Flaming Creatures" on the
(grounds of academic freedom
land freedom of inquiry, i