Mtr tgan Daitj4 Vol LXXX, No. I Ann Arbor, Michigan-Wednesday, August 27, 1969 Ten Pages ACADEMICS 0 0 0 D-iii} Jay Cassi Dean William Hays: LSA's victim of the times LSA By MARTIN HIRSCIMAN summer Supplement Editor 1 ONG DORMANT as an object of stud activism, the issue of academic reform c tured the time and imagination of hundreds students for the first time last year. And fittingly, the target of the most wi spread attack by student reformers and radi was the long-despised two-year language quirement in the literary college, as well as college's distribution requirements. Although realization of the ultimate goal abolishing the requirements was blocked by literary college faculty, substantial changes w initiated in the grading of language courses in the whole degree and requirement struct of the college. By far the most significant change wast introduction of an alternative degree for liter college students who do not wish to study a f eign language or fulfill the distribution requi ments of the bachelor of arts degree. Under the new bachelor in general stu iBGS) degree option, a student need only p 60 hours of advanced (300-level or above) cour and another 60 hours of unspecified courses graduate. Like students in the bachelor of t program, BGS candidates may take a maxim of 40 hours in one department. But only 20 ho can be credited to the required 60 hours ofv per level courses, and there is no formal c centration under the BGS. ,LTHOUGH the deree was at first believed be undesirable and "inferior." surveys graduate schools have uncovered little conce for the title of the undergraduate degree ear by a prospective masters candidate. Rather, heads of graduate admissions co mittees around the country have consistently serted their interest only in courses taken, gra achieved and faculty recommendations receiv In addition to christening the new degree, faculty responded to the tremendous unpopul ity of required foreign language courses by lowing students the option of taking these clas on a pass-fail grading basis. These two reforms culminated a six-mo long series of dialogues and confrontations wh began slowly, and eventually involved virtu every member of the literary college commun IEWS EXPRESSED on the requirements sue during this debate covered all shades educational-and political--philosophy. The educational philosophy asserted by Ra cal Caucus-one of the prime movers in the quirements fight -was typical of the predo mint political philosophy of the caucus. As o member explained the position: "Students h a right to control their own lives. Foreign la guage and any distribution requirements are direct violation of our rights to conducto academic lives as we choose." On the other end of the philosophical sp trum were those professors- -mostly in the h manities---who were tied to the requirement tradition and self-interest. They were joined by faculty members who gued that foreign language education was nec sary to help eliminate the image of the mo lingual "Ugly American -world traveler a world exploiter.- Some, including many studetns, opposed C language requirement but accepted retention distribution rules. These participants in the debate cited poor st uction and low levels of retention as sig- requiremen ts nificant deficiencies of the elementary language program at the University. Nonetheless, they ent supported the concept that students can be re- of quired to attain some breadth of knowledge dur- ing their undergraduate years. ide- cals tJHE REQUIREMENTS controversy began with re- little -notice last October as Student Govern- the ment Council began circulating petitions. Almost immediately, SGC and Radical Caucus of found they had hit upon a seemingly limitless the flow of support for abolishing the requirements. ere After only two weeks, some 3000 signatuyes had / and been collected. ure On Nov. 21, about 150 students marched in freezing weather from a sparsely attended rally the on the Diag to the office of literary college Dean ary William Hays. There Hays was presented with or- the petitions which then included over 3500 ire- signatures. The petitions were forwarded to the curricu- dies lum committee and then to the college faculty. ass But the faculty sent the petitions-and the ques- ses tion of the requirements----back to the curricu- to lum committee for further study. arts uMil FT1ER THE Christmas break, students re- curs~ turned to the battle with renewed vigor. up- About 25 students, mostly members of Radical Caucus, showed up at the regular January fac- ulty meeting and the meeting ended before it began when they refused to leave. At the time. faculty meetings were closed to the public. ofn Although the requirements question still for- ed nally lay in the curriculum committee, the fac- ulty held a mass open forum on the issue. Over 1000 attended, but about all the forum demon rn- srated was the growing interest in the contro- as- versy. The debate was pedestrian and unenlight- des i ed A special faculty meeting was scheduled for the the end of January, but language was not on the ar- agenda. As the meeting approached, however al- Dean Hays issued a surprise statement support- : es ing the opening of faculty mnetings as well as other reforms. nth But while the faculty met. members of Radi- ich eal Caucus and other students staged a five-hour lly non-disruptive sit-in in the dean's office. And ity- when there was no faculty action on require- inents-the only reform vas the opening of the is- meeting--the sit-in was extended to a weekend- of long vigil. At the regular February faculty meeting a few di- days later, the question of language was post- re- poned and again students began to consider ni- possible disruptive action. But at a mass meeti g ne the following day, there was too little support ave for this tactic. n- LULL IN the activity followed-but only a in brief one as the curriculum committee issued our its long-awaited recommendation on the lan- guage requirement on Feb. 24. ec- The majority report of the committee asked - that three options-study in mathematics, lin- by guistics or Middle English-be allowed as a sub- stitute for the current language requirement ar Meanwhile. a more liberal minority report asked es that the requirement be terminated with a two- no vear high school foreign language entrance re- td quirement to be placed in its stead. One year of college-level language would also have sat- the isfied this proposed requirement. of under fire -Daily---Ands Sack Requirements sit-in: Confronting the air -n)a ly . C' a si67i Dean Wilbur Cohen: A second wind for the ed school it.'- Meanwhile, student interest in the question appeared to be at low tide. But with the seem- See STUDENTS, Page ? I Students By MARCIA ABRAMSON Ai eManaging " ditor TWO YEARS AGO students realized hat they had the right to control tileir own non-academic lives, and they demanded and won that right. And last year. perhaps bolstered by is success, many students decided hey also deserved a voice--in some 'ases, an equal voice---in academic de- ci-sioi-making as well. But the battle tor academic recogntit iun has ntiG beet so eaily won, aid much imore debate attd couttotation are -ure to followx St udet its argue that1 ihei have the right to lparticipate in any decision which has a tajot effect n Their aca - demic lives-decisions like fiing an as- sistant professor or changing currien- lum or concettration requirements. The contend that the students who have tak- press de but equally crucial movement was gath- ering momentum in many of the col- lege's departments. as well as in the education and social work schools. Many faculty members jealously guarded their final decision-making power against the new challenge from students., Departmental committees can technically be overruled by the dean of the college or by the administration. but this almost never happens. Vice President for Academic Affairs Allan F. Smith has the power to review tenure dccisions. but since he took the job in 1965 he has used his power only once. - I2ACULTY MEMBERS who oppose the studet t challenge counter that stu- dents are not experienced or mature enough to be allowed decision-making status in academic affairs. They may agei i ime t t iudet, topin ion is relevant. partmental reform many of the smaller schools and col- leges-- have felt no impetus for chang- ing existing structures because they al- ready have satisfactory formal or infor- mal working arrangements. In the economics department, for ex- ample, professors actually asked under- graduate students to organize into some kind of participatory group. One meet- mg was held. but no cohesive group emerged. The graduates. however, established a :ommittee structure which parallels the faculty committees. Students consider the same issues, and even participate in faculty recruiting. The department as- sured students that they would be heard :)n all matters. including promotiotis and tenure In schools and departments where problems did exist, however, they were )ften virtually impossible to resolve. are sacred. Students also won voting menbership on the department's other, smaller committees. THERE ARE NOW 11 faculty mem- bers, two undergrads and two grad- uate students voting on the journalism ommittee. But the department's stu- dents are the only students who have such voting power, despite similar move- ments in several other departments. Philosophy students have also been awarded voting rights on all faculty de- cisions except tenure, although depart- ment chairman Richard Brandt says toting rights may be extended to ten- ure decisions if the student participation is successful. But the philosophy department break- through came at the end of last year, and no one knows how long it might tnn k ~nrP ,n r rot 'n tin,,r isn,'nl,,ntP -': -t - .4,... it .t. +...'. ..