PAGE TWO-

TAE MICHIGAN DAIL"V

FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1967

PAGE TWO THE MICHiGAN DAILX FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1967


Free Universities Lack Organizations and Funds

By ROBERT A. GROSS
Collegiate Press Service
WASHINGTON, D.C. ,(CPS)-
The two-year-old Free University
of Pennsylvania has more than 400
students, . a widely-ranging cur-
riculum, and faculty and admin-
istration support, but some of its
organizers consider it a failure.
"The Free University is in
trouble," three members of the
student-organized school's coor-
dinating committee said last
month. "The majority of the cour-
ses are ill attended, the creative

thought is at a mimimum in many
courses, the minimal office work
has not been done, and that which
has been done has been done by
a very few people."
Ajihough this analysis is dis-
puted by other University of Penn-
sylvania students as "overly pes-
simistic," it points up problems
shared by a number of free uni-
versities across the country.
Founded in protest against bureau-
cratic stifling of learning in formal
education, the "anti-universities"
are beginning to meet the dif-
ficulties which college admin-

'Louisiana Story':. Mugging
Like the Campbell Soup Kid

istrators face continually-lack of
organization, of funds, and of stu-;
dent interest.
No Formality
In their reaction against the
formal procedures used by colleges
to handle almost all activities, the
free universities allow their mem-
bers complete freedom. Anyone
can organize and lead a course,
and anyone can attend-usually at
no cost-and with no fear of
grades. The bureaucracy is given
little power: it registers students,
arranges classroom space, and
handles the necessary .paper-work.
When policy decisions have to be
made, everyone can participate.
Yet, despite their success in in-
volving students in education, free
universities are beginning to face
the consequences of their extreme
a n t i-bureaucratic assumptions:
administrative work is not being
done and continuity of operations
is in danger.
The nationally-publicized Ex-
perimental College at San Fran-
cisco State College admitted re-
cently that it is broke and the out-
look for additional funds is bleak.
The organizers of the EC, which
has an enrollment of about 600
students and offers regular college
credit for some courses, failed to
write proposals for foundation and
U.S. Office of Education funds,
which it expected as sources of
support.
$15,000
The EC began its operation last
fall with an initial $15,000'alloca-.
tion from the student government,
which would have been repaid
upon receipt of outside assistance.
But to receive any grants the col-
lege would have had to submit a
written prospectus. And for activ-

ist more accustomed to organizing
and agitating, the difficulties of
writing a formal proposal seem
to have been insurmountable.
So, with little money in sight
for the immediate future, EC of-
ficials are beginning to take stock
of their operation.
"We are going to be tighter
about salaries next semester," EC
Director Cynthia Nixon said,
"partly because of lack of money
and partly because work has not
been up to par."
To Centralize
"The structure of the EC will
change slightly to a more central-
ized operation," she added.
Continuity has been another
major problem for free universi-
ties. The one-year-old Free Uni-
versity experiment at the Univer-
sity of Michigan was discontinued
this fall because "there was no
one to lead it," according to Rich-
ard Cook, a graduate student in
philosophy, who taught a course
at the Free U. last year.
"We had a debate when we were
starting the Free University be-
tween the anarchists who wanted
no organization and some of us
who said some organization was
necessary. Those in favor of or-
ganization won, but apparently
no one did the work," Cook added.
No Plans
Similarly, Uninc. U., initiated at
the University of Colorad in 1965,
lapsed last fall because no plans
had been made to continue its
operations and its organizers had
become involved in other activ-
ities. Now the project is being re-
vived with the formation of an
Uninc. U. Commission; and courses
are being offered for second se-
mester.

"I am very much in favor of the
intent of this project," said Pro-
fessor Walter Weir, "but I don't
think it can be lasting and suc-
cessful unless it is incorporated
into the University."
Yet, formal connections with the
University can bring their own
problems, as the organizers of the
EC have learned. Besides the para-
dox of offering courses for credit
in a system which it rejects, the
EC has to meet formal depart-
mental requirements for accept-
ance of its courses.
Credits
"During spring, credit was given
ir special study courses in the EC,'
according to Don Jones, a lecturer
in psychology at San Francisco
State. "They clamped down this
fall."
"It might takes as long to break
up the evaluation network (grades,
etc.) as it did to break up the
plantation system," he said.
But most free university plan-
ners are uninterested in joining
the formal educational system.
Following philosopher Paul Good-
man's original call for "secession"
from the universities, their organ-
izers seek to establish counter-
institutions which will be far more
attractive to students than tradi-
tional colleges.
Go Ahead
"We will show the University
what kind of education we want
by going ahead," said Neil Reich-
line, a founder of UCLA's Experi-
mental College. "In that sense, the
Experimental College will be a
,model for education that the ad-
ministration will be able to refer
to in determining curriculum
changes."
"The time will eventually cone

when the University will start
looking around for better ways of
providing education. We will have
them."
As for course credits, Reichline
says his "philosophy is totally
against that. If it really works,
then there won't be any need for
credit."
Shares View
Barry Greenberg, coordinator of
Stanford University's Experiment,
shares this view. "We had to make!
the decision to be attached to the
structure or be outside of it-we
chose the latter."
Faculty members have their own
reasons for not embracing the free
universities immediately. Stanford
history professor Paul Seaver fears
The Experiment may be more in-
terested in protest than in educa-
tion.
"One fear is that it might be-
come ideologically-oriented, and
not present some kind of consen-
sus. But student thinking isn't
logically oriented toward the pres-
ent consensus," he said.
Damage Support
"Secondly, if it becomes a build-
ing base of opposition, it will dam-
age some of their support."
Stanford's associate dean of
students Joel Smith says he is
"excited" about the free university
but hopes that it remains objec-
tive. "If it isn't objective, the pro-
gram is something other than an
education-alone and then it
moves toward a category of polit-
ical action. There is nothing illicit
about that, but it just isn't fair to
call it education or scholarship,"
he said.

DIAL
1m~hZ~3.N8-6416
Holding for Still
Another Wonderful Week!
GRAND PRIZE WINNER 1966 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
Yom '. fit. ' r V"
'
"DAZZLf4NG"-saturday Review "!RARE"-New York Times
"BEAUT I '"-New Yorker OGREAT..New York Post
CLAUDE GIROUX PRESNS
("UN HOVE ET UNE FEMME"}
A FLM BY CLAUDE LELOUCH WITH ANOUK AIMEE
JFAN.LOUIS TRINTIGNANT -PIERRE BAROUH. IN EASTMANCOLOR.RELEASED BY ALLIED ARTISTS

By JAMES MAYO
BANG. Nobody is dead serious,
but everybody laughs. Doesn't the
little French boy realize that those
big bad werewolf men with their
Eiffel tower oilwell are out to spoil
his nice dirty swamp with the
wonderful alligators and snakes
and strange fish. Maybe he is
laughing at the symphonic music
that is playing in the background.
But that is true to nature for a
Walt Disney type nature adven-
ture. May be he is laughing at all
the noise the derricks are making
and how the audience looks as
though someone is drilling in their
teeth.
Oh no! Now the little French
boy is looking, sad. Could those
friendly pug nosed alligators who
keep chasing his pest coon have
something to do with it? Or those
men who are drilling into the
water? But no. Those men smile
too much and say funny things
like, "Hi. How are you?" The only

darkness is within the dark water,
not in men's souls. I know. He is
looking sad because he has seen
the movie before, as have the
people who didn't even go see it.
The movie has some points so
don't get the right idea just yet.
The photography of the outdoor
scenes is sensitively done even
though the sound track is often
atrocious. The sound could even
be left out since the story is,simple
and what conversation there is
inone and doesn't contribute that
much to the viewer's understand-
ing.
The director Flaherty gives you
a good ieda of the strange mon-
strosity of the swamp in the initial
part of the story by photographing
the large flowers and reptilian
creatures of the dark waters. Un-
fortunately though, the rest of the
film is somewhat monstrously
overdone. Some ideas such as the
intrusion of the drillers into the
semi-peaceful swamp is stressed
too much. The French boy, Joseph
Boureaux, when he is doing things
loses any self-consciousness and
acts well. Most of the. time though,
he is mugging in front - of the
camera like a Campbell soup kid.
The happy ending where the drill-
ers cap their well with a rig known
as a Christmas tree and the boy
gets his Christmas presents is
overdone. Somehow you fell like
spitting just as the boy does at the
end of the film.

41

____.

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Tonight at the Ark
WALTER BLACKWELL
FOLK SINGER
Blues & Ballads, Pop & Protest

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ENJOYMENT, IMMENSELY ORIGINAL!
THE WAY IT IS WITH THIS NEW BREED
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COLUMBIA PICTURES i'
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Friday, 7, 9, & 11
Saturday. 5. 7. 9 & 11

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Recording of
Out of Our Minds
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