Page Six THE MICHIGAN DAILY Tuesday, August 27, 1968 Page SIx VilE MICHIGAN DAILY Tuesday, August 27, 1968 Individual iniative forms core of honors program FIRST BIRTHDAY: RC scores victories despite obstacles The literary college's honors program is designed to offer the qualified student spe- cial opportunities and challenges. It is geared toward the upper 10-15 per cent of the student body and features small classes with a higher percentage of professors rather than teaching fellows conducting the courses. "Discourse is the prime method of in- struction in seminars of 15-20 students,' explains Prof. Otto G. Graf, honors pro- gram director. "Honors courses stress thepry and incorporate a greater degree of critical analysis and more writing of a critical na- ture to enable the qualified student to en- gage in independent study and research." The honors program began as an experi-. ment nine years ago, in its initial stage consisting of only 21 courses. It is now the largest and most comprehensive program of its kind in the nation, with over 200 courses and sections in all departments of the literary college, in addition to 22 inter- departmental courses. Over 1,500 students will be enrolled in the program this fall, including over 400 entering freshmen. Flexibility and lack of structuring are features of most honors courses, with a definite stress on individual initiative. Inde- pendent Study (colloge honors 290) is an elected course in which a student plans with a professor a course of study that will be worthwhile to the student and acceptable for academic credit. The student does not attend classes, but confers regularly with the professor to dicuss important problems and aspects of his studies. Individual initiative is also an integral part of the honors colloquium (college honors 190). The colloquium is an open course number allowing a group of stu-_ dents interested in a particular specialized field of study not /covered in regular Uni- versity courses to set up such a course with an interested professor. Honors students also have the opportun- ity to take many of their courses as sum- mer reading programs. Students may ar- range with a professor to read the texts normally used in one of their courses on their own over the summer. Dean Robertson meets students informally . - II SLATE R'S Try us for that' "Hard to Find" Book By JILL CRABTREE The Residential College, fav- orite child of educators and students seeking a remedy for mass-production learning at the big U, is having a birthday. After a year of painstaking self-discovery, coupled with' fi- nancial disappointment, the col- lege, situated. precariously amid brick dust and wet paint in a corner of remodeled East Quad, is awaiting its second crop of freshmen. Decisions made and direction taken in the next year will de- termine whether the college will' crystalize into the exprimental laboratory and model intellec- tual community it was conceived to be, or whether it will become simply a mechanism for relieving LSA enrollment pressures. Indications are good that the college will fulfill its mission, if the enthusiasm and innovative spirit now present in the Col- lege prevails. Academically, the college breaks all the rules in the book. Curriculum is more fixed than in the rest of the University. All students take eight-hour "core" courses in logic and language, and western man. In addition, all students take something call- ed freshman seminar which is a sophisticated version of that eighth grade Unified Studies course you' had before they# started dividing culture up into history and English. In some courses students write a paper each week. Seminars are limited to 10-12 students and grading is on a pass-fail basis, with a 60-70 word evaluation written by the instructor for every' student in every course, at the end of the term. homes occur often enough to be worth mentioning. With a student body totalling slightly over 200 and approximately 35 faculty members, such face-to- face meetings are possible. Not all of the college's inno- vations in academics have work- ed, however. James- H. Robert- son, Director of the College and Associate Dean of LSA, asserts that some changes in curriculum will be made next year. But ex- periments, after all, do not lose their value if they don't confirm the hypothesis, One change Robertson would like to instigate is more flexi- bility for students in math and science. At present students take all their core courses within their first four semesters at the col- lgwith a comprehensive exam at the end of this period. "This makes it difficult," Robertson says, "for math and science stu- dents to get at some of their. basic pre-requisite courses." This means that these students are forced to go to summer school or change their major, which is "hardly fair," Robert- son says. , The college staff has also run into difficulty interpreting their pass-fail grades for the honors program and scholarship offi- cials. At present the translation is being done by Robertson's own office staff. 'iStudents Robertson has talked with are "quite adamant about keeping pass-fail grading", he says. Many have suggested that if the office must compile grades, they be made known to the stu- dent only if he requests them. Robertson feels this issue is an extremely important one for the college's future, and may put it of the college, is as innovative as its curriculum. The main deci- sion-making body is the Repre- sentative Assembly, which ,-on- sists of eight students, four fac- ulty members, four administrators and two resident fellows. It is chaired by Dean Robertson, who has a tote. This Assembly is vested by the1 college constitutions (adopted in a college-wide vote early in the winter term) with final authority for decisions within the college. It is responsible only to the Dean and Executive Committee of the literary college, and the Regents. All administrative committees, including building, a c a d e m i c standing and curriculum commit- tees, must report to the Assembly. Robertson feels the government has worked very well, "So far the Assembly's decisions have not broken down on student versus non-student lines. I think this indicates a great deal of mutual trust and understanding. A comment made by one stu- dent in response to charges of "selling out" by having faculty members on the governing body is revealing: "Surely," the stu- dent said, "the faculty members have as much vested interest, rele- vant material and feelings to be a part of our government as does' any student." ,So far the Assembly has taken no action that would excite an outsider hoping for dramatic evi- dence of student power. Curfew regulations, always a prime con- cern of students, were abolished, in the first month of the fall term by a vote of the student body as 'a whole, and later endorsed by a pro-tem government of student, faculty and administrative repre- sentatives. This done, the new Assembly has been concentrating on work which is less dramatic, perhaps, but essential nonetheless; care- fully' drawing the lines of auto- nomy for the various planning committees of the college. "The students recognize," Rob- ertson says, "that if they give a mandate to an administrative committee, the committee must be able to exercise it with some de- gree of responsibility, and .aot.be second-guessed on major issues." In the fall the Assembly will begin to make more visible de- cisions on the structure and con- tent of life within the college. Besides proposed grading and curriculum changes, a primary is- sue of 1969 will ,be where to house the colleges' sophomores when they become juniors - whether the College should provide a few apartment houses outside the dormitory, house upperclassmen in apartment suites within the dormitory, (with present plans, the quadrangle could accommo- date 700 students) or let upper- classmen find their own housing. The options open to the college may be, narrowed considerably if finances remain as shaky as they have been in the past. Originally, the Residential Col- lege was. to be located in two buildings on what is now the Ann Arbor Municipal Golf Course. One, a classroom dormitory unit, was budgeted at $11.8 million.. A sep- arate library and science facility was priced at $5.2 million. In 1965, the Legislature offered planning money for the library- science building. However the University refused the money, be- cause it was felt that a provision in the 1965 capital outlay act re- quiring state supervision of build- ing planning interfered with the University's autonomy. Since that time the University has tried unsuccessfully to get the act dropped, even challenging it in the courts. In April, 1966, how- ever, the Regents approved a fi- nancing plan for the classroom dormitory building, even though financing was insecure. In June the Regents approved as "sources of funds" for the pro- posed college $7.5 million in reve- nue from a bond issue to be re- paid from student fees, $1.1 mil- lion from refinancing South Quad, $1.4 million from other residence hall: income, and $1.8 million in gifts from the $55 million alumni fund drive. Unfortunately the plans never materialized, because only $35,000 in gift money came in, leaving the project almost $2 million short of funds. Other University funds were tied up in construction of a niew .admninistration building and an events building, leaving the Residential College low on the last of priorities. That was when the decision was made to move the college to East Quad. There is little hope now that the present Residential College will ever move to North Campus. If the University ever succeeds in its fight over the capital outlay act, or substantially changes its priorities, future Residential Col- leges (original plans called for four within four years) may have a separate location in which to develop, away from the melee of central campus. The present Col- lege, however, must find its fu- ture under handicap. 4 +r 336 . STATE 662-4543 I ______________ I I Camera. Shop i Contact with professors is not to a college-wide referendum in limited to the classroom. Faculty, the fall. are frequent visitors at the col- The college's system of govern- lege at mealtimes, and impromp- ment, which gives students a high tu bull sessions at professor's degree of control over all affairs Whatever your photographic needs may be- We Can Serve You! 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