a special feature the Sunday daily bv 4 sIIuart rannes and cear a rapoport Number 27 Night Editor: Jim Beattie April 12, 1970 ApIl 2I17 7 he Free ...and I University ... the world for a syllabus THREE MEN, palms up, lay perfectly still in the darkened room. Slowly, their legs rose high over their heads. Moment after excrutiating moment their silhouettes remained unmoved. Finally, a f t e r what seemed an interminable length of time, one perfectly controlled pair of legs arched back to the floor. Soon others followed suit in the same graceful manner. The Free University Yoga class meets every afternoon and twice on weeknights. The banner of a "free university," long an il- lusive goal for students seeking alternatives to formal University classes, has been' raised once again with moderate success on campus this semester. This year's version includes more than 70 courses, offer- ing'students the opportunity to gain "learning ex- periences" in areas as tvaried as Tantric Yoga and Macrobiotics to the study of science fiction and the occult. Snapshot ! "Sharing-in a given locus of time and space we will come together to do a ballet of minds, bodies, and souls. Utilizing yoga, massage, and Gestalt therapy, we will cleanse ourselves of bad karma and will begin our move on a higher plane. We will share our minds, our bodies, our joys, our sorrows. We will let our everyday trap- pings and hang-ups fall from our shoulders. Giving up false' prettense and accepting each other for what we are, we will let ourselves flow toward our essential center. This will be a place of mutual caring because we will all arrive with that longing in our soul, no matter how deeply buried by the karma of everyday life. This simple notice is all that is needed. For those' who have been in this place before it will be an opportunity to get back to where they belong and shake all the bad vibes karma from their hair. For others it will be an ini- tiation. We will accept all staggering blunder- ing, crying, choking, lust, frayed nerves, with- drawness, and skepticism." -Fre 'U' course catalog. t e g d offer the opportunity for the happiness and per- sonal satisfaction (which is inherent in a true learn- ing experience) as sufficient rewards for a person to want. to share in the experience of learning about something important to himself. Instead of viewing teaching as another task - with different "techniques" to insure a student's attention - the Free 'U' hopes to offer the op- portunity of a creative teaching experience, in which the teacher derives as much benefit and pleasure from a course as his students do. Ideally, teachers will become resources, offering their knowledge tc interested people instead of establishing themselves as authorities whom students must seek out. Ideally, learning through cooperation will replace training through competition and people will be seen as human beings rather than inanimate things. THIS PHILOSOPHY is not new. The concept of a free university dates back to 1966 on this cam- pus. Growing out of the Free. Speech Movement at Berkeley in 1964-65 when faculty members were invited to lecture on civil liberties and disobedience, a string of free universities appeared on a number of college campuses across the nation. Four years ago, the first Free University in Ann Arbor attracted more than 3,00 students to sample an assortment of courses which included seminars on historical theory, jazz, education, film, poetry, poli- tical- economy and just being an American. The organizers of the first Free University en- visioned a utopian alternative to a research oriented University community which they despised. They outlined their philosophy in a stirring, idealistic statement attached to the course catalog which said in part: "A FREE UNIVERSITY is not easily definable, nor is it subject to or concerned with self-definition. Instead it is the sum of a number of concrete individual efforts to overcome the boundaries, to transcend the limits and to destroy the irrelevances of the "knowledge factory" University that we all live in now: It emerges from a collective desire to humanize the relationship be- tween teacher and student, to open up new subject matter, and to develop ways in which the learning situation can concentrate on the human importance of ideas. Snapshot: In the cafeteria of Alice Lloyd Hall, two freshmen talked excitedly about their figure drawing class. They both agreed that the course was highly successful, with the nude models and a helpful teacher contributing a great deal to that success. "I can do work when I want with no pressure at 4.l, and I don't have to worry about finish- ing projects," says Eric Brilliant. If the two had wanted to take a figure draw- ing course within the University, they would have had to be enrolled in the school of Archi- tecture and Design-and have already had two semesters of drawing. "I really wish I could just live here and take Free 'U' courses. It's so nice to have the press- ure of a grade removed," says Craig Hardman, reaching the end of his bowl of vegetable soup. 1 5 1 3 5 r S 5 a r 1 z r a L "In its first semester it offers the courses of study described in this booklet. Some will perhaps prove dead ends, and those will be discontinued by common consent. We assume that nearly all will be changed by those who take part in them. Other courses and new educational situations will be creat- ed as people see their possibilities and decide to make them exists." Snapshot: Holding his squirming two-year-old child in his lap, David Kozubei talked about his Free 'U' class with a sense of satisfaction. Born and educated in England, he says he has always wanted to be a teacher. Kozubei, an Ann Arbor resident, calls his class: "Reading." "I knew this way I would get people who were curious, which is certainly a good quality for learning." Each week, the class would interpret some selection. Once they discussed comic strips, an- other time President Nixon's state of the Union message. "Usually I would put the ball into play, see what happened, and maybe give it a kick every once in a while," he says. In regards to his role as teacher: "I considered myself a "knower" of certain information which I made available to the class." Meanwhile, the baby had slipped off Kozu- bei's lap and was riding a tricycle around a nearly empty room-save for several stacks of books. tion to the University. It offers things the Univer- sity has neglected." Another differentiation in Free 'U' courses oc- curs in the way a class is organized. Some classes follow the "learning through doing" theory whereby students actually practice what they learn on them- selves and each other. Yoga and message classes are examples. Others are taught in a more traditional sense. These courses include the course of Chicano culture. For as Padilla says, "I mostly lecture be- cause people don't know anything about Chicano culture." Usually, lectures are given when the mem- bers of a class decide they are necessary. TYPICALLY, HOWEVER, a person who had a specialized interest and was willing to share that interest with others, became the center of one of the more than 70 classes which eventually were formed. For instance, the coordinator of the yoga class is a graduate student who says : "I wanted to have moral support for the yoga I like to do. I never had the money to join yoga clubs and I imagined others in Ann Arbor with an interest in yoga were in the same position." Occasionally, however, the freeness of the Free 'U' may be rather overpowering. As one freshman says "I just didn't think complete nudity was neces- sary for massage, so I dropped the course." "However," he continued, "I found the candle- making class simply fascinating." He explains that the instructor taught the mechanics of the art during the first session and all the rest were devoted to sharing of everyone's experience and experiments with candlemaking. "When I started," he adds, "I knew nothing about fashioning candles and now I've already sold $40 worth of the candles I've made. WHERE WILL the Free 'P go from here? Can any free university establish itself on a permanent basis? Right now, these. questions remain unan- swered. One fact seems clear. The current organizers of the Free 'U' are bent on expanding it beyond the University campus: "The Free 'U' is not just for stu- dents, we ,want to reach everybody in the com- munity," says Dave Conely, one of the Free 'U's founders. During an open crafts fair next week, the organizers of the Free 'U' hope more non-students BUT THE Free University is more than a col- lection of interesting courses, rather it is based on concepts and philosophies which reject the tradi- tional University structure as either meaningless or a waste of time, and search for alternative sub- ject matter and class structures to make education a more enjoyable experience. This year's Free 'U' catalog puts it this way: "The Free University is an attempt to give people a chance to learn for the sake of learning, not for filling some type of artificial requirement. It is open to the whole community. "We put no requirement on what or how some- thing is taught. Our teachers are to be more re- source persons than what is usually meant as teachers. Hopefully, they will be learning and ex- periencing as much as the other members of the class, and not just sterilely dispensing facts. "Anyone who wishes to start a class may. If you don't have a special talent or area of knowledge, you are welcome to start a class in anything you would like. These classes can take any form you want ... Insteaa of relying on degrees and the threat of grades as the necessary motivation to force students to "learn" required subjects, the Free 'U' hopes to "It will be defined by those who find value in these ambitions and take part as teachers and stu- dents in their pursuit. Free universities, however, have been subject to the ups and downs of student enthusiasm as long as they have existed. Since 1966, the free university experiment has been attempted several times with varying successes. After a pumber of abortive at- tempts the Ann Arbor Free School was established in the summer of 1968. The Free School offered classes on utopian communities, guerrilla theatre, and tac- tics for social change. Then, last fall, a number of students established the Wayne State Free Univer- sity in an attempt "to create a place for social inter- action and personal intellectual development with- out the restrictions of an authoritarian, reward-pun- ishment education." However, free universities have traditionally been experiments on campus, n e v e r lasting more than a few months. rIHIS YEAR'S Free 'U' is another such experiment, whose hopes for success must ultimately rest on the enthusiasm of its participants. The current Free 'U' was conceived last Novem- ber when the idea gathered support after leaflets and circulars were distributed on campus. Soon after, the University Activities Calendar offered to assist the small group of students, teachers and commun- ity people by giving them office space and financial aid. By January, there was sufficient response from prospective teachers for a catalog to be published outlining proposed course offerings and establish- ing a registration procedure. Eventually, over 8 5 0 people registered by paying a $5 fee. Registration and administrative procedures were handled by a steering committee made up of "anyone who shows up." Courses at the Free 'U' fell into essentially two categories. First, there were courses on subjects of- fered in the formal University curriculum, but were unsatisfactory in the eyes of students who opted for a Free 'U' alternative on the same subject. Examples range from language to philosophy, psy- chology and history courses which offered traditional subject matter in a more "meaningful" fasion. Secondly, a large number of courses dealt with material not normally conceived as part of a Uni- versity curriculum. Examples included classes in aphrodisiacs, the blues harp, cigarette rolling, the poetry of food, occult thought and a host of others. Snapshot: Keith Glass Poole, works at the Ann Arbor News Bldg. and teaches 5 to 100 people how to play the "blues harp." "When I teach," he, says, I want my students to get feeling behind their playing; I want them to express their own feelings with the harmonica." As he talks about his music and his class, 18-year-old Keith exudes a warmth and a pride that can only come from the satisfaction of knowing he is communicating with people in his own way. "I wanted to get to know peo- ple and I knew a lot of people were interested. So why not help other people or something?"' To sum things up, he ,says, "it gives you A FREE UNIVERSITY is not easily definable, nor is it subject to or concerned with self-definition. Instead it is the sum of a number of concrete individual efforts to overcome the boundaries, to transcend the limits and to destroy the irrelevancies of the "knowledge factory University that we all live in now. It emerges from a collective desire to humanize the relationship between teacher and student, to open up new subject matters, and to develope ways in which the learning situ- ation can concentrate on the human importance Of ideas. -1966 Free University statement The yoga class started with 120 members, but quickly dwindled down to six regular participants. Still, it is obvious that the Free 'U' was an ideal vehicle for linking up seven yoga enthusiasts who otherwise would probably have never met. Most classes within the Free 'U' follow a similar pattern, experiencing a 50 per' cent- drop-out rate, as students in the "University grind" consider their Free 'U' classes the most expendable-even when they are the most enjoyable. However, most teachers, leaders and coordinators are not discouraged by the drop-out rate. They re- affirm that the people come because they want to, everyone participating with an honest commitment to learning. "We don't have the deadwood and un- interested students that so many University classes are clogged with," says one teacher. And, while many of the courses consists of only three to five regular members, leaders are still enthusiastic. As one student points out: in most regular University classes, only about three members actively participate in discussions anyway. ANOTHER IMPORTANT advantage of the Free 'U' structure, according to one instructor, is the human level which the success or failure of a class depends upon. Instead of a time schedule and credit distinctions regulating the amount of time and energy a student puts into his work, "students of the Free 'U' depend on each other rather than with the faults of administrators. Whether they succeed or fail in a class is totally and completely up to themselves." Moreover, from the point of view of, the par- ticipants in most classes, Free 'U' courses are mean- ingful in a "human" way irregardless of the subject will become interested. "We really hope other people outside of Ann Arbor will gravitate to the Free 'U'," says Conely. * Snapshot: "I'd like to teach a course concerning the teachings of C. J. Jung, the famous Swiss Psychologist. It will be called something like C. J. Jung and the Humanist Breadoff from Freudian Psychology; or maybe C. J. Jung and the birth of God-Self Concept in Psychology." So wrote Jim Wulach in the Free 'U' catalog published last January. Wulach, a law student, said last week at the completion of his course: "I wanted to teach the course as a missionary of Jung. But I felt my main job was to communicate my enthusiasm." Leaning against a tree in the Law Quad courtyard, Wulach expounded on his fledgling educational techniques. He explained that his class was made up of 5 or 6 hard-core mem- bers, was less structured than a University class, and allowed for a close interpersonal re- lationship between all the members and him- self. "We related Jung's teachings to our own lives, our dreams, and our experiences, he re- called. "This personal tact made the class most exciting."