*
K,
-17
-V r
-V - - - - - -
Teaching and Red ape
Professors View their Administrative Duties
ONE CITY: TWO WORLE
Life on Both Sides Of the Berlin Wall
By HARRY PERLSTADT
T IED HAND IN HAND with a profes-
sor's academic responsibility for teach-
ing and research are those administrative
duties which arise in any institution. The
operation of a large Uniyersity is involved,
and part of its administrative burden
falls on the shoulders of the faculty in the
form of committees, advisory duties and
project supervision.
The importance of faculty participation
in administrative affairs is great. "If pro-
fessors allow the University to become a
bureaucracy in which professional admin-
istrators supervise and administrate the
University, the role of the professor is of
a secondary nature," Prof. William B.
Ballis of the political science department
and director of the center for Russian
studies said.
"If the University's administration is
turned over wholly to professional ad-
ministrators, then its true character is
lost and the end of the University be-
comes administrative. The prime obliga-
tion of the University, however, is to
insure that these administrative respon-
sibilities will not dissipate the teaching
and research functions of professors."
Prof. Allen P. Britton, assistant dean
of the music school, explained that it is
not possible to disassociate the adminis-
trative from the instructive function of
professors. The only administration done
by the faculty is concerned with the
academic side of student life-counseling
and registering for classes, acquiring
equipment and pouring over scholarship
application forms.
MOST OF THESE academic adminis-
trative problems are handled by the
deans of the colleges, associate deans, and
department chairmen. In the literary col-
lege, for example, the post of dean and
associate dean are full time jobs while
department chairmen can teach a class or
two. In some of the other schools, asso-
ciate deanships are half-time Jobs, per-
mittinq them to teach more and maintain
closer ties with the studintq and faculty.
The deans and department chairmen
are aided by an executive committee
elected by the faculty for rotating terms.
This committee approves all proposals
before they are submitted to the general
Professor approves courses for next semester-
school or department faculty. Most schools
and departments also have committees
on graduate study, curriculum, and others
which deal with specific problems faced
by the school. Often, as in the education
school, committees deal with research or
special areas such as the University High
School.
An addition of a course to the curricula,
for example, would begin as a proposal in
the curriculum or undergraduate com-
mittee of a department or school. After
discussion and approval it is sent to the
executive committee which must also ap-
prove it before submitting it to the fac-
ulty. In the literary college, the depart-
ment executive committees submit forms
to the Dean's Office describing the change
and giving a supporting statement. It is
then sent to theCurriculum Committee
of the college headed by Prof. Wilbert J.
McKeachie of the psychology department.
It must also gain the approval of the
Literary College Executive Committee un-
der Dean Roger Heyns and, when neces-
sary, the approval of the graduate school
executive board.
PROUGH the University Senate, the
faculty considers problems from sal-
aries and prmotions to the full year
calendar. But there are problems which
the faculty cannot or does not wish to
handle. Prof. Warner G. Rice, chairman
of the English department explained that
the faculty is not particularly interested
or able to manage the building program
or University-wide projects. On the other
hand, the faculty is vitally interested in
the parking problem, but cannot handle
the technical aspects involved and there-
fore must be content with voicing its
opinion.
Prof. Rice also noted that the nature of
the University had slowly changed from a
time when the faculty could take care of
most of the affairs, to one in which man-"
alers and administrators were necessary.
But the University does not hire ex-army
generals or business executives to admin-
ister academic functions. In fact, Prof.
Britton said, the University goes about
business with less administrators per fac-
ulty member or per student than many
other colleges. For the most part, admin-
istrative officers are promoted from
the faculty. University President Harlan
Hatcher was a professor of English at
Ohio State. University Executive Vice-
President Marvin L. Niehuss was a pro-
fessor of law; Roger Heyns, vice-president
for academic affairs and dean of the
literary college, was a professor of psy-
chology.
Prof. Britton thought that bringing in
faculty men to administrative posts was
the only way the University could be prop-
erly run. "There cannot be a core of pure
administrators and pure teachers. The
worst thing that can happen to a com-
pany is to be bought out by people who
know nothing or care nothing about the
product or its quality. A similar thing can
happen to a university."
WHEN THE administrators are brought
up from the professorial ranks, they
tend to be academically oriented and are
more sensitive to the needs of the fac-
ulty. However, Prof. Rice holds that as
a professor becomes more expert in an
administrative area he has less time
for teaching and spends more and more
of his time on managerial problems.
There was a time, he explained, when
a person would be shy when asked about
a deanship because it was not politic. But
now amateur administrative standing is
not sufficient and it is necessary to train
deans.
Tomorrow's deans are being trained to-
day at the Center for Higher Education
under Prof. Algo D. Henderson. It is clear
that as colleges and universities grow
in size and complexity, more administra-
tors and greater skill in administration
will be nedeed, a Center publication states.
The Center develops skills which will be
needed to run an academic institution--
curriculum planning, student counseling,
personnel and financial administration
and public relations.
However, the proper exercise of these
skills cannot be effective unless the ad-
ministrator is familiar with the traditions
of higher education and the academic
community.
Prof. Henderson believes that most fac-
ulty members would rather teach or do
research than be bothered with academic
administration problems. But a well-
trained administrator can expedite fac-
ulty work through his services and en-
able the harrassed professor to devote
time to teaching and research.
HARRY PERLSTADT, a night
editor on The Daily, is a junior
majoring in political science.
By HUGH WITEMEYER
THE WALL cuts through the heart of
the old capital area in Berlin. It
separates the restored Reichstag on its
western side from the Brandenburg Gate,
the Ministeries and the site of the chan-
cellor's home on its eastern side.
Throughout the city, it divides buildings
and streets which seem naturally to be-
long together. It is eight or nine feet
high, made of a double layer of gray
cement blocks topped by four or five
strands of barbed wire. It now runs
almost the entire length of the city, and
is slowly being extended all the way
around West Berlin. Green-uniformed
People's Police and brown-uniformed East
German soldiers stand guard all along
it.
Foreigners and West Germans (but not
West Berliners) may still go into East
Berlin through four or five checkpoints.
They may travel on foot, in a car or by
the subway. Trains from West Berlin
now stop only at the Friedrichstrasse
station; the other platforms are dark
and deserted except for the dim outlines
of the guards.
At the checkpoint, visitor's passports
are dropped through a curtained chute
into another room and returned a few
minutes later. No one knows how they
are screened. West Germans (but so far
not foreigners) are then given a "Pas-
sierchein" with name and number which
they must present upon leaving to insure
that they are not refugees. East German
currency may not be brought in or taken
out. Small amounts of coffee, chocolate,
cigarettes, fruit, etc. are permitted as
gifts. Briefcases and packages may be
inspected, but often the visitor is only
asked about their contents. Personal
searches are rare. Visitors may not stay
overnight.
Large numbers of people pass routinely
through the "Kontrolle" in this way
every day. But the great tension beneath,
this routine was shown by the start which
a firecracker gave people in the Friedrich-
strasse station on New Year's Eve. Visitors
feel that the sufferance by which they
may enter the hostile city could end at
any time.
WEST BERLIN is a low, sprawling,
" prosperous city of 2.2 million. His-
torically, Berlin is a union of 12 villages
-hence its large geographical area.
Numerous parks and empty plots of
ground still unrebuilt add to the sense
of space and openness. Large areas of
the suburbs were only slightly damaged
by Allied bombing. The central "Kur-
furstendamm" section is highly modern
in architecture and products, though not
particularly attractive. On winter even-
ings, cold' weather and German family
custom keep people at home, and the city
is quiet.
The closing of the border was a double
shock to West Berlin. First, it made per-
manent the dislocation of German fam-
ilies caused by the events of the war and
the occupation. Nearly everyone I met
had relatives or close friends in the other
sector whom they now cannot see. A
couple with whom I stayed, for example,
had been married in East Berlin and
received permission to move to West
Berlin in 1954. The wife's younger
brother, whose father had died in the
war, became influential in the East Ger-
man Youth Movement. He later came
to West Berlin and took a job. But he
grew discontent after a time and returned
to his old position in East Berlin. His
sister is now cut off from him. The point-
less drift of people among events beyond
their control has now been arrested with
Pompeiian suddenness.
Secondly, the Wall-and the Allied
acquiesence in it-was a shock to the
West Berliners' sense of security. They
fear, even more than a nuclear war,
a series of nibbling aggressions which will
gradually destroy the psychological and
material health of their city. The pre-
ponderance of old people in the streets
and subways might be an early mark
of this decline. A banker told me that
young people are leaving to make their
careers in West Germany. He fears that
in 20 years West Berlin may be a ct0'
of old men, lacking the vigor necessary for
resistance. West Berliners agree with
General Clay in thinking that the Allies
must oppose small aggressions now, and
initiate counter-moves to throw the Com-
munists off balance.
Their own spirit and will to resist is
still high. At Christmas time, they set
lighted Christmas trees along the border
and candles in their windows. They
dedicate music over the radio by first
names to East Berliners. They ring all
the bells in the city at appointed times.
They boycott the East German subway
(the "S-Bahn," part of which serves
West Berlin) so systematically that sight-
seeing buses have been pressed into ser-
vice to handle the overflow. But they fear
that the nations on whose support their
resistance depends may have a fatal
lack of the. same ardent will.
E AST BERLIN is bleak and grim. Re-
construction has been sporadic, and
many uninhabitable shells of buildings
and bare sites remain. The stores-all
marked with the "HO" of the socialist
trade organization-are sparse, dingy and
colorless. The streets carry little traffic
and a small number of pedestrians (of
these a high proportion are uniformed
men). Public displays are all propaganda.
East Berlin is a ghost: traces of its pre-
war splendor linger in the ruins, and
give it a haunting beauty.
East Berliners lead an endurable but
Meeting at the Berlin C
severely restricted life. Economically, they
are very poor. The standard of living is
at roughly the 1945 level, and during the
1950's was often below it. Wages are
lower than in West Berlin, food prices
higher and clothing prices about the
same. The quality of nearly all goods is
lower. Little replacement of capital equip-
ment has taken place since the war.
People with jobs in West Berlin had to
give them up after August 13, and take
worse in East Berlin. Many families even
lost their gardens. Savings accounts in
West Berlin had to be relinquished at
such a distorted exchange rate (1:1) that
most of the buying power was in effect
confiscated.
The housing shortage is so great that
engaged couples often have to wait two
years before they are allowed to marry.
A typical apartment consists of one
middle-sized room, a tiny bedroom and
a tiny kitchen. Application through a
clogged network of bureaucratic channels
is required to rent an apartment, buy
a car or get a driver's license-but a
payment under the table usually secures
a shortcut. Many refugees went to West
Berlin to escape the poverty rather than
the tyranny.
Politically, no public opposition to the
regime is permitted; a joke told against
it can be punished by five year's im-
prisonment. But the privacy of the home
is still relatively intact. There people will
express their contempt of the regime. I
heard an estimate that in the occupied
Eastern European countries 75 per cent
of the people are against the regimes,
15 per cent generally in favor of them
and only 10 per cent willing to fight for
them.
East Berliners know what conditions
are like over the Wall, and they remem-
ber their pre-war life. Their complaints
FACULTY PANEL
The Value of Out-of-State Students
are conseq
humor defla
and propag
is the butt
not speak r
rising on Ji
minds. The
a grim rea
their situati
likelihood c
The sanc
precious b3
oppressive a
any small r
an ugly wc
every mom
hospitality
holidays the
and red cal
of the after
an hour a:
light suppe:
is served. S
bottles of (
a leisurely p
the evening.
premely cor
The conver&
the curtain
from seeing
FLIGHT I
extremeb
drastically
gees, for tI
over or unde
for a time,
mined. The
were report
they came t
mas Eve. G1
let families
trap.
The majo
through th
one of the c
controls ena
on passports
organized g:
private citiz
relatives-ha
ploiting this
But it seem
the controls
It is hard
been in Ber:
powers there
ance to it
thoughts an
cold war is
things peop
sorbs and
about Comi
given emotic
significantly
sion of the
HUG
earned h7
spring fr
lishhono:
College,
Marshall
Continued from Page Thirteen
higher education are, for students to set
themselves up in a corporation with loan
capital. It's been shown that the return
on higher education is something like
eight per cent, after taxes.
One can set up a mutual aid association
using all the best principles of business
administration, and the students could
come out ahead by quite a good margin
in financing education. The state wouldn't
have to put up any money except for
those kinds of activities which the stu-
dents wouldn't normally elect, just to
bring them into those activities.
PROF. PEEK: How do you think a limi-
tation on out-of-state students might
affect the academic life of the University?
Prof. Wegman: It's been made pretty
clear to the deans of the schools and col-
leges that the University is not going to
have any more out-of-state students than
it did last year. But if any limitation is
put on out-of-state students, the school
of public health is going to have to close
shop.
Prof. Peek:. If we put a limitation on
our graduate students in political sci-
ence, there will only be enough to keep
two or three professors busy instead of
30.
Prof. Place: This is also true for the
business administration school. Our un-
dergraduate program would not be ef-
fected, but we'd have to close our grad-
uate program.
Prof. Meier: This is true in the natural
resources school. I think it goes back, for
many of the departments in the literary
college, to something like the Wander-
jahr in Germany. A man was expected
to go around and see other schools and
the way they taught his particular spe-
cialty before he received his doctorate.
Therefore, there has been strong em-
phasis to choose some other graduate
school. The University, in turn, has re-
ciprocated. This means, then, that there
is a strong bias against our own under-
graduates in our graduate schools. The
application of any limitation on enroll-
ment would prevent reciprocation and
put us in a devil of a fix particularly with
the top graduate schools in the country.
Prof. Wegman: But there are some in-
stances in which that -doesn't apply. We
never turn down a qualified applicant
from the University in the public health
school. One could not justify a public
health school just to train people for the
needs of Michigan.
The other part which I think applies
to us, and almost surely to many of the
other schools, is that one cannot do a
proper job of teaching Michigan people
if one doesn't have people from other
states and other experiences. In the field
of public health administration, if one
is going to teach only the methods used
in Michigan, he is presenting a very nar-
row, limited base for the students to oper-
ate with, and the health of the people
of Michigan is bound to suffer.
Prof. Peek: In our graduate courses in
international relations and comparative
government, the richness of our course
is increased by the Asians, Africans and
Europeans in the seminars. They add
considerably to the quality of the dis-
cussion.'
Prof. Place: Isn't this advantage, how-
ever, slightly exaggerated because it's
important to have this broader point of
view, but the student could come only'
from Michigan and you still could have
the same coverage through the faculty.
Prof. Meier: I think we over emphasize
the effect of the faculty in teaching. More
of the students educate each other than
the faculty educates them. If one has
top rate students and a third rate facul-
ty, they'll still come out top rate.
Prof. Wegman: Certainly in our field,
the didactic teaching, or the leadership
of the professor, is far less stimulating
than the questions and interchanges in
the students' minds. I think that the Leg-
islature and the people of the state have
-a perfect right to expect the University
to provide places for Michigan people, but
to cut down out-of-state is a suicidal
way of solving the problem.
Prof. Peek: Financially, too, you know.
They pay much more for tuition, so you'd
lose money.
Direct Programs
West Berlin-prosperous "city of light"
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE SUNDAY, MAY 6, 962