PAGE EIGHT
TRF MICUTr a v ina TT.v
" " 111GHT lTW l'Ihf trfA1hT UbAILY.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 29,1967
I
Research Activities Bring Increased Know
le dge,
By ROBERT JOHNSTON
and MARK LEVIN
Research of all shapes and sizes
has become an integral part of
the educational process at almost
all of America's colleges and uni-
versities. Competition for the lim-
ited supply of research funds pro-
vided by the federal government
and the huge private foundations
is intense. Extensive staffs of
highly skilled technicians devoted
entirely to procuring the necessary
financial support can be found
working feverishlyi on college
campuses throughout the nation.
The achievements of research
conducted here at the University
in the social and physical sciences
are numerous, significant and ex-
citing. The permanent research in-
stitutes established here since
World War II continue to bring
fame and literally fortune to this
rapidly expanding educational
complex. Much of the University's
expansion in the past 20 years -
new buildings, laboratories, com-
puters, reactors - are direct re-
sults of the major research com-
mitment it has made.
Vast Commitment
Last year, the University receiv-
ed the second largest amount of
federal research funds alloted to
any educational institution. H.w-
ever, the vast commitment to re-
search which the University has
developed may be seen not only in
the sheer volume of research ex-
penditures, but also in the many
specialized research facilities on
campus and the number of re-
;earchers involved.
The development of the Univer-
sity as a resear yh-education insti-
tution was spa red by the emer-
gency conditions of World War Ii.
Teams of engineers and scientists
were specifically assembled at the
University, supported by federally
sponsored war research develop-
ment projects, to help the war ef-
fort.
Recognizing the connection be-
tween research and a progressive
academic program, the University
kept these research groups togeth-
er after the war as the federal gov-
ernment provided continuing sup-
port for space and technology or-
iented projects.
Today working on their own;
sponred grants with suwervision,1
Dr assisting a faculty member ori
researcher, one out of nine Uni-I
versity students is involved in re-i
search. l
- - 4-J. --- - A.1- - - - - - - -1 - - " , - - I
Sprawling Com puter Centers Aid Social Scientific
Analysis of Human Behavior
In the hiring of new faculty,
"teacher-scholar" orientation is
maintained throughout the Uni-
versity. The professor is expected
to give his prime attention to
teaching, but in many depart-
ments interest in research activ-
ities has been the major prerequis-
ite for advancement.
Currently about 1300 graduate
students at the University are in-
volved in research projects in their
field of study. This is seen as a
prime reason behind the fact that,
an American Council on Education
study last year ranked ten of the
University's graduate departments
among the top ten in the county.
There is little doubt among most
administrators and faculty mem-
bers that the principal beneficiar-
ies ofi the federal largess are the
graduate students and faculty
themselves. Research money al-
lows the faculty to draw high
compensation for non-teaching
work Research, however leaves
less time in the classroom.
At the same time, tho-igh, much
>f the research money that comres
nto the University is tied into
graduate work in some way. A pro-
fessor's research projects often
provide a fertile ground for thesis
)rojects among his students. They
also provide fairly lucrative work
for both graduate and undergrad-
uate students.
Of course, research has spawned
many problems. Once underway
smaller projects become consoli-
dated into large programs that of-
ten tend to acquire a great deal of
nomentum. Equipment is pur-
;hased, building space is filled, of-
n new administrative units
spring up, in practice if not in or-
yanization charts, and personnel
ire hired. The University may soon
ind itself with an ongoing pro-
gress that doesn't really fit into
>an overall research program or,
that creates faculty gradaate, sal-
try, or other imbalances.
The old departmental orgainiza-
tion is also severely tested in many
ways. Chairmen, drawn from the
faculty, must become expert ad-
ministrators. Large programs are
almost impossible to fit into the
old structure. Faculty tend to lose
their loyalties to the University
first and to their departments sec-
cond as they see more and more
of their money coming from
Washington or a foundation.
However, superimposing a $52
million research program has crea-
ted exciting new possibilities that
may make the administrative
problems worth it in the end. But,
certainly the disciplined old de-
partmental system will never be
the same.
Interdisciplinary appointments,
centers and institutes and study
programs have proliferated, and
may have the most tenuous of re-
lationships to any of the depart-
ments connected with them.
The largest and internally most
cohesive unit at the University is
the Medical Center, even though
in this case the term refers to geo-
graphical arrangement and not to
administrative organization.
Even so, the Medical Center is
often more of a cohesive, wo1l-
structured unit capable of under-
taking a variety of related tasks
than are most administrative units
to which the term "center" is ap-
plied.
Presided over by School of Medi-
cine Dean William Hubbaed, the
Medical Center operates almost
autonomously from the rest of the
University.
Research in the biomedical
sciences is growing faster than in
any other field. This fact, coupled
with the tremendously high level
Df financial support given to medi-
cine in general in the United
States makes research at the Med-
ical Center exciting, expanding,
productive and expensive.
After the Medical Center the In-
stitute for Science and Technology
is the largest University research
unit. Established in the late 1950's
after the Sputnik spur to educa-
tion, IST has never really gotten
off the ground as an organized,
driving force for research and ed-
ucation largely because there was
never enough thought given to ex-:
tctly how it would fit into the
University.-
patterns than wrenched o:t and Most programs in the fields of researchers working at MHRI has search Lab, the Propulsion Lab
placed in a separate institute with science and tech iotogv are inore spilled over into many departments and the Wind Tunnel Labs.
other programs with which they easily fitted to old deuartnntal and schools, serving to attract good (The engineering college has a
have very little in common. and Prof. Ralph Gerard is in neu- students and faculty, generate Stu- penchant for organizing endless
It was thought for a while that rophysiology. dents for a Democratic Society and numbers of "labs," of which these
the insitute could fall back on a Altogether the academic staff teach-ins, and generally to throw- nubsome of thelarger. They arise
program of aid and encouragement with PhD's numbers about 60. Re- ing off sparks in a great many as one or two faculty in a particu-
for Michigan industry, but there search at MHRI delves into ever directions. ar are gr in a re-
has never been much i r the Uni- aspect of information systems It was in the engineering college search support and a graduate stu-
versity that could be related dir- biological systems and social sys 'that research at the University denthsporTh n ed
ectly to Michigan's economic de- tems, from artificial models to hu- first got started back before World ,dtfollowing. This is combined
velopment. man subjects. "Theory," often ex- War II, and a great deal of the with lots of specialized equipment,
IST does have a productive In- pressed in some sort of mathema- research program is still there. so a shingle over the door soon
dustrial Development Division, but tical modeling of the essential The aerospace department, pre-
there isn't enough there to fill a elements of a real system, is a sides over a comfortable amount Engineering Research
program on the scale set up for common word-game theory, com- of space research sponsored by Elsewhere in the engineering
the institute. So the director, Prof. munications theory of urban the National Aeronautics and college there is a lot of research
James T. Wilson, is left with a growth and others. Sapce Administration and the Air that falls on the line .between
beautiful building and various Force. Myriad projects are organi- basic and applied. This has put
programs picked up from odd As with ISR, the excitment zed into the Space Physics Re- the engineering faculty into a pos-
places in the University, none of generated by the critical mass of search Lab, the High Altitude Re- ition of continually having to de-
which really fit together.
These include the Biophysics
Lab and the Electro-Optical Sci-
ences Lab, the only original prod-
ucts of the attempt to make IST
a real science institute. And the
Electro-Optical Sciences Lab has
in fact proved a tempest in a tea-
pot within the IST organization, as
Prof. George W. Stroke, its head,
almost had a large part of the
University's research apparatus
in orbit before he was finally shif-
ted to the electrical engineering
department and settled down with
some generous research grants.
Great Lakes Research
The other part of IST is the
Great Lakes Research Division -
which existed long before IST and
still has a life of its own - and
the Willow Run Laboratories.
The Willow Run Labs were add-
led on to IST in 1960, in hopes of
some sort of mutual benefit which
hasn't really materialized yet,
though there are still hopes. Wil-
low Run work is very defense or-
iented and is usually classified.
There is a minimum of relation-
ships with either faculty or stu-
dents from the University, most of
the work being done by profession-
al researchers.
Social Research
The Institute for Social Re-
search is probably the most spec-
tacularly successful of the inter-
disciplinary operations. However,
this very success must be trioubl-
ing to administrators because of
the unlikelihood of duplicating Scientists Explore Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Reactors at Phoenix Project
elsewhere within the University
the conditions that have made
the ISR possible.
This institute is a product of the
labor and genius of Rensis Likert,
its director, who founded it in the
early 1950's. ISR was started in
connection with the burgeoning
pseudo-science of survey research.
From meager beginnings - the
University offered Likert and his
colleagues heat, light and space
but no money for operations and
salaries - Likert built the insti-
tute into one of the greatest social ~
science operations in the world,
with some outstanding theorists,'
economists and assorted interdis-
ciplinary types on the staff. It was
one of the University's greatest
bargains.
Even more important than ISR's
own research has been the stim- , wondered
ulus it has provided to other parts
of the University. The people that
work there have proved to be a
powerful attraction to draw in new
programs in social science fields,
along with excellent faculty anx-
ious to be a part of the "criticalTT
mass" of talent that comprises
ISR. The economics and psycho-
logy departments have certainly
benefitted, while the most spectac- are a about . .
ular "spin-off" has been the Men-
tal Health Research Institute, var-
iously identified as a bastion of
systems theory and a spawner of At Michigan there are five men's, five women's and one mar-
radicalism.,
Innocuous MHRI mrked couple's co-ops which house about 240 students; an
MHRI's innocuous titlemasks additional 125 "boarders" take meals only
one of the most exciting and di-
verse centers of activity at the
University. Prof. Anatol Rapoport WHO OWNS AND RUNS THE CO-OPS? WE DO
professes to be in a field called
mathematical biology. Prof. Kon- In each house each member, new or old, shares equal responsibility for all decisions;
stantin Scharenberg is in neuro- what to eat, how much to spend, how much to work...
pathology; Prof. Merrill Floodis The co-op houses are owned by the Inter-Cooperative Council (I.C.C.), a corporation
mnother mathematical biologist,'set up and run entirely by the students who live or eat in the houses.
WHO MAY JOIN THE CO-OPS?
Anyone beyond the freshman year or who is over 21 who agrees to participate in running
the co-ops democratically is welcome. Members are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis,
without racial, religious or political discrimination. There is no pledge or initiation period.
)OK cr .iirWHAT ARE THE LIVING & EATING ARRANGEMENTS?
O K , GR\ As a roomer, you are provided furnished living quarters as well as social space and eating
privileges. As a boarder, you get 20 meals a week.
ALLEST "Guffing," our traditional between meal snacking, is one of our most cherished privileges.
I TOWN Everyone has free access at all times to milk, bread, butter, jam, and leftovers. Other items
are charged at cost.
Any member may invite guests. There are adequate laundry facilities. Co-ops stay open
during vacation periods and in the summer.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
G I S T Each house sets its own budget. Average costs for the past semester have been:
Week Semester
Room and Board $18.75 $300.00
D TEXTBOOKS Board only $12.25 $196.00
New members pay a $20 deposit when they join; it is refunded when they leave.
,notebooks, supplies) WHO DOES THE WORK? WE DO
All cooking, dishwashing, maintenance and management is done by the members. Any
member, new or old, can be elected officer: president, house manager, food purchaser,
accountant .. .
JR CO URSES Itakes from four to six hours a week per member to run a co-op. The exact work time
There are no maids, janitors, or hired cooks.
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