Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan under authority of Board in Control of Student Publications Passing the 10 minute endurance test 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed In The Michigan Doily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1969 NIGHT EDITOR: MARCIA ABRAMSON Protest misused at MSU MONDAY'S sit-in at the administration building of Michigan State University was characterized by meaningless speech- es, unclear positions and weak commit- ments which revealed exactly how. little the participants had thought about the issues involved. MSU students had been angered by the firing of assistant professor of psychology Bertram Garskof. A tenure review board with rigid conceptions of "adequate" teaching practices had recommended that Garskof's tenured contract not be, re- newed, Few of tle students at the sit-in, how- ever, saw beyond the specific incident of Garskof's firing to the larger,'more basic issues. Few of t h e m had any defined goals. The sit-in was premature. "This is not a student power issue," one leader of the demonstration explained. "We're not saying we have the right to hire and fire teachers. It's just that when there's a teacher who tells us what so- ciety is about, we should support him." SUCH SUBJECTIVE ANALYSES of the situation evade the points which should have been considered. Student power issues are involved at MSU: the right of students to have some voice in academic decisions, particularly. The system of hiring and firing instruc- tors at MSU is completely in faculty hands. The men on the tenure review board who condemned Garskof last No-; vember have become too accustomed to orthodox methods of teaching, rigid grad- ing scales and curricula selection systems. The substantive issue is not whether a single professor should be retained. Rath- er, it is whether the tenure system of which Garskof is a casualty should be re- tained. Unfortunately, none at the sit-in seemed to realize this, and as a result no directives ensued and the sit-in finally ended without accomplishing anything. WHAT IS NEEDED at MSU is a greater student-voice on such matters as ac- academic policy. Garskof and company should focus upon an issue of this na- ture. T h e y could begin the attack by formally appealing his dismissal - some- thing he has yet to do - thus challenging the ground on which it was based, and exposing the rigidity of outdated educa- tional philsophies. Once athese philsophies have been ex- posed, once those who oppose change and innovation are forced to* defend t h e i r stand, the due process of educational change may begin. If MSU faculty decision making bodies are too reluctant to allow students a role in the academic matters, a serious fit-in might accomplish something. And if that becomes necessary, it should be done cor- rectly -, not for attention, organizing purposes, or a three-hour rap - but for positive results., -JIM NEUBACHER By HENRY GRIX YOUR PEN stops writing and you're thinking about 1 a s t, night. . . . You don't control your slaves by discipline or coercion ," your pen is writing, but tests show there is a fifty per cent chance your mind is blank. And when you leave lecture with three pages of scribbled notes, probably neither you nor your professor have learned very much. Prof. Edward Walker, a psy- chologist who works with the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, has formulated his own rule, Walker's Law, to 'ex- plain this phenomenon: "No matter how hard you try, some lectures will stink. If you do not try very hard, they will all stink." Psychologists report that 50 per cent of an audience is engaging in private mental meanderings during any given academic lec- ture. Evens atmoments of highest interest, usually during the first ten minutes of the lecture. 10 per cent of the audience is pro- bably dreaming. WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY psychologist, Prof. Paul Cameron, well-known for his research into the lecture system, considers he is a good lecturer, able to hold about 66 per cent of his audience. He tries to "shock the hell out of them." Although he sees teaching as his primary task, he also "recognizes his obligation to the student to entertain." If a teacher is un- willing to rouse his student from the lethargy of listening, Cam- eron continues, he will "pay for it in attentiveness." Cameron's research backs him up, with figures revealing w h a t most student lecture goers already know. When Cameron's research- ers shot off a gun in lecture, about 20 per cent of the students were roused from sexual fantasies. Another 20 per cent were "remin- iscing." About two per cent of the males wanted to go to the bath- room. Cameron even tries to discuss what his students are pondering- sex-in order to rivet attention on his lecture. He wears wild clothes and "If I were a girl I would wiggle my hips if neces- sary." "The chairman says I am the most liked and disliked professor in the department," Cameron adds. "A lot of students think I'm great and a lot of others think this guy's a shit!" But when "fighting against Herculean odds," the professor says, he is willing to risk derision. IT IS QUESTIONABLE whether his dramatics are worth it. Some professors acknowledge the gen- eral educational failure of lec- tures and are constantly striving to develop new ways of learning. Confronting his "Russian intellec- tual history" lecture last fall, Prof. Arthur Mendel of the history de- partment gallantly termed 't h e lecture a "deadening process" and urged students to "break out of the vegetable state that has been imposed on you for 15 years." He energetically sought to trans- form his huge lecture into a dis- cussion of assigned readings, specifically his own text. The response was miserable. Only a few of the hundreds who overflowed Aud. A were willing or able to participate in the discus- sions. Mendel conceded after thrice failing to inspire his stu- dents. He continued to lecture. Mendel's well-intentioned fail- ure is representative of many at- tempts to deviate from the norm of lecturing. His return to t h e system would come 'at no. sur- prise to Cameron, who insists "lis- tening is the preferred way of learning." INDEED, GIVEN the opportun- ity to choose, students would pro- bably prefer to listen and record.. Much maligned, but also much at- tended, the lecture has survived as an anachronism of medieval education principally because it is the easiest way to learn. Besides, it is undoubtedly t h e easiest way to teach. The Uni- versity's Center for Research on Learning and Teaching released a memo to the faculty last year de- scribing the lecture as a "secur- ity blanket" for professors "with- out which they would neither feel like teachers nor be recognized by their students as such." Certainly, at the university, the lecture has been accepted as a fact of academic life. Faculty and students accept the legitimacy of the administrative explanation that the university can afford to accommodate the burgeoning stu- dent population only by providing mass meetings for the dissemina- tion of information. BUT THE LECTURE deserves a better defense. There can be no formula for educating all stu- dents, and the lecture is doubt- lessly one of the better tools for reaching the minds of many. As a tool, however, the lecture should not be expected to accomplish all the goals of an education or of any given course. A blend of Hollywood histronics and Shakespearean polemics, the "good lecture" succeeds by really trying. While the lecture must not seem like drudgery, psychologists ad- vise, it must be the belabored product of the professor. In their booklet "Some Thoughts About Teaching the Beginning Course in Psychology,"' Prof. Walker (of Walker's Law) and Prof. Wilbert McKeachie list the components of the valuable lecture: -The lecture must discern some feedback from his audience; -He -should present three basic items to be retained, seven to be recalled for 4 shorter period after the lecture, -He should therefore be re- dundant since most people are only listening' half of the time anyway: "Tell them what you are going to say, say it and then tell what you have said." All this should, of course, be organized to meet the goals each professor should specify for his class. But the authors judiciously add, "It is presumptuous for one human being to undertake to tell another human being how to give a good lecture." THE MECHANICS of present- ing a good lecture, however, do deserve analysis. Even Cameron's seemingly successful "shock the, hell out of 'em approach" may not be. The teaching center's. memo advised the lecture "must go beyond mere showmanship and classroom entertainment - most University students will s'e e through and reject a contrived at- t e m p t at happiness-through- learning." And movies, tape recorders and experiments to lure student inte- rest, often prove unimpressive in conjunction with the personality of a bored lecture. Slides of a professor's summer trip to Turkey hardly make the enumeration of Ottoman Empire coups any more intriguing. However, some professors have learned to successfully adapt "technology" to the needs of knowledge. Prof. Martin Gold and Prof. Elizabeth Douvan have de- vised a scheme for "Psychology of the Adolescent" which eliminate the group lecture. Instead, they have placed their lectures on tape for the class of 25 to hear in the UGLI Audio Room. Like reserve reading, the lectures are required and can be reviewed. Gold explains -this is a "direct recognition of the fact that stu- dents are individuals; each has his own style of learning." PROF. PATRICIA Gurin, also of the psychology department, has designed her Personality Develop- ment course to accommodate dif- ferent learning styles. Students may choose to do independent reading, attend lecture or parti- cipate in discussion. However, at the end of most learning experience lies the exam. The ability to imbibe information becomes its own reward. The lec- ture, in, the context of the entire academic community, succeeds or fails to the degree that it pays off in the end. Unfortunately, it may be enough for lecture to be "the process whereby the notes of the teacher become the notes of the student without going through the minds of either." Hiding unemployment A RECENT recommendation by the Nix- on Administration may yet make the welfare system even worse than it al- ready is. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Robert Finch has proposed that tle federal government r o u t e welfare funds to decrease inequity of benefits among the states. THERE WAS no doubt the Nixon admin- istration policies would be austere. But a recent proposal by Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Robert Finch to raise federal government welfare sub- sidies reflects outright negligence. The Republican Party platform clearly states that jobs are the solution to un- employment, not welfare checks. Nixon endorsed this policy during his campaign. Under the proposal an additional $1.4 billion per year will be disbursed dis- proportionately to the states in order to decrease the disparity in their welfare Editor ia Staff MARK LEVIN, Editor STEPHEN WILDSTROM URBAN LEHNER Managing Editor Editorial Director DAVID KNOKE. Executive Editor WALLACE IMMEN . . News Editor CAROLYN MIEGEL ......Associate Managing Editor DANIEL OKRENT .... ......... Feature Editor PAT O'DONOHUE .......... News Editor WALTER SHAPIRO ,..., Associate Editorial Director HOWARD KOHN ....... Associate Editorial Director NEAL BRUSS .............. .. agazine Edito, ALISON SYMROSKI Associate Magaine Editor AVIVA KEMPNER ...... ......Personnel Director ANN MUNSTER .............. Contributing Editor DAVID DUBOFF ............Contributing Editor ANDY SACKS ........... Photo Editor benefits. This will tend to decrease the flow of the unemployed into areas with better payments. Finch's proposal will do nothing to solve the problem; it will only manage to hide it. UNDER THE present system, for exam- ple, welfare payments are substan- tially higher in New York City than in neighboring Connecticut. Thus, many Connecticut unemployed move into New York to get more money. With an increasing density of unem- ployed in any one area, the situation be- comes pressing. If, however, the dispari- ties between states are partially elimi- nated, the unemployed would be less like- ly to move into certain areas and become more spaced. The dimensions of the wel- fare problem would then be less apparent. Most people glance only occasionally at social problems-and then only briefly at the symptoms or the confrontations. If Finch manages to take a few of the symp- toms, lessening the probability of con- frontations, the public might not be even as vocally dissatisfied with unemploy- ment as it seems to have been in the last severalyears. [T IS DIFFICULT to know whether Finch realized the ramifications of his pro- gram when he proposed it. Regardless, the additional funds do nothing to solve the problem. The government should spend its money providing jobs for the poor, and not trying to eliminate structural inequi- ties in a system that is totally mis- directed. -JIM HECK .a* Letters to the Editor World War I, and Another Vietnam? To the Editor: AFTER READING your article (Daily, Feb. 1) about the Biafran students seeking relief for their countrymen, I cannot help but wonder if they are not asking us to make a grave mis- take by encouraging us to solicit the support of state and federal legislators. In an humanitarian cause our government cannot be depended upon. Foreign aid and war are the governments two methods of acting in an "humani- tarian" cause. The first method, which the Biafran students are asking us to promote, has always been given with strings attached. The "white man's burden" and "Manifest Destiny" are the philosophies with which our government gives for- eigh aid. I STRONGLY URGE the Bia- frans to seek their aid from us, the people. The business of gov- ernment is political, not social or humanitarian. And I also urge sympathetic Americans to ignore the govern- ment and direct efforts to the people. People can be human, but' governments are only political. Under the name of humanity our government entered the Spanish:. American war, now Vietnam. , Parliamentary antics and academic reform -Cheryl Lynne Feb.I Principles to the Editor: I WOULD LIKE to discuss here briefly what I consider to be one of the basic principles of a free university and a free society. For clarity's sake let us consider a mini-university: one teacher and ten students. The teacher teaches, sets requirements and signs a degree for each student who meets such requirements. The question of principle is: Can the ten students overrule ("democrat- ically") the decision of the teach- er and force him to sign a degree? My firm belief is that, specifical- ly : a) the teacher has the right not to be coerced into signing a degree against his conscience. b) The students have the right to be heard, the right to choose another teacher (i.e. university) and the right to become their own teach- ers (university) and sign their own degrees. I challenge anybody disagreeing with the above to explain why he does. -Prof. Raoul Kopelman Chemistry Dept. Jan. 24 Curriculum To .the Editor: 1N THEIR otherwise praisewor- thy editorial (Jan. 31)' Mark 'L.evin and' Ron Landsman, dis- cussing the LSA Curriculum Com- mittee's pending but as yet un- q WATCHING THE FIRST open meet- ing of the literary college faculty Monday, I finally understood why they have kept their meetings closed for the past 150 years. Faculty members, when gathered to- gether in a parliamentary atmosphere, have an inexplicable tendency to spout academic slogans and to make fools of themselves. For two hours Monday, one professor after another proclaimed t h e innate "goodness" of language instruction or praised the "intellectual struggle" of learning a foreign language. "To abolish or weaken the require- ment," Prof. Sheridan Baker said, "would be an educational and a nation- tion," Mendel explained. "Adding or subtracting a little here and a little there to the language requirement miss- es the whole point." The students cheered, but the euphor- ia was short-lived, for Monday Prof. Mendel was in the minority. THE VAST MAJORITY of faculty seemed content to espouse a sickening philosophy of academic elitism. There was a f 1 a t denial of the democratic mentary manuevering in order to post- pone any real decision on the school's requirements. Prof. Robert Hefner's motion to re- duce the present language requirement to 10 credit-hours didn't even come up for vote. Its opponents simply defeated a proposal which would have allowed them to vote on Hefner's motion. And so after eight years of discus- sion, the decision was postponed another month. THE MOST DISTRESSING PART of the matter was the underlying hostility of. the faculty to the students and their demands. When M i k e Koeneke, president of Student Government Council, asked the meeting for insulting the faculty. And while Tonsor is an extreme ex- ample, the hostility was equally ap- parent from the comments of a num- ber of 'others. These conservative - and in most cases powerful - faculty see their long- standing power relationship disinte- grating before them. Students, once do- cile and obsequious, are no longer will- ing to have requirements dictated to them. The faculty backlash is often almost comic. "The educational system is so watered down." Prof. Baker said with a straight face, "that there is a tendencv to turn everything into a sort of play school." It reminded me of a comment a local whether students shall join as fully voting participants in the academic de- cisions of the literary college. Denied this, right, campus radicals see no alternative but for students to demonstrate in a united fashion their oposition to this philosophy of academic elitism. They claim a disruptive sit-in is the only way. Reluctantly, I'm afraid- I have to agree., Steve nissen I.